


i fear the fall (and where we'll land)

by collegefangirl3791, skywalking-across-the-galaxy (BadWolfGirl01)



Series: lullabies [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Didn't Leave the Jedi Order, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Clone Wars, Clones, Episode: s05e20 The Wrong Jedi, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Mando'a, Mates, Politics, Sabotage, Sparring, The Force, Togrutan culture, and Palps is the Supreme Asshole, hey remember all those characters you thought were one-offs?, the GAR is a bunch of assholes, think again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-10 10:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15947381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collegefangirl3791/pseuds/collegefangirl3791, https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadWolfGirl01/pseuds/skywalking-across-the-galaxy
Summary: So, “Give us a minute, please,” she says, glancing back at Fox. The Commander nods, steps back and closes the door. Ahsoka crosses her arms, grits her teeth. This woman will pay for murdering Jedi and clones. “You don’t have much time, Letta, so I suggest you get whatever you have to say off your chest.” She rolls her eyes a bit, sighs.Letta sighs, looks down. “The idea of feeding the nano-droids to Jakar wasn’t mine.”What. “Why are you saying this now? Why didn’t you reveal this before?”“Because my life is in danger. The person behind this will be able to get to me unless you know the truth.” Letta pulls her feet down, sits up, and alright, fair enough.“Mm. What’s the truth?” This still would’ve been better to tell before the GAR took her, but…And Letta pushes herself up to her feet and says, simply, “A Jedi. A Jedi showed me how to create the bomb, and how to put the nano-droids in.”[or: the Wrong Jedi, revamped]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this isn't the fic we set out to write originally, but i hope you enjoy it nonetheless! we'd love to hear from you all
> 
> title taken from "beautiful crime" by Tamer

Every time Rex reads another intriguing and previously unknown fact about Togrutas and their culture (in the most general sense, the book tells him, there are too many subcultures on Shili and in other Togruta colonies to get specific in an overview of the species), he has to glance up from his datapad to look at Ahsoka, who is more-or-less comfortably situated at his desk, working on her reports from her recent mission in Onderon’s capital. He’s not sure whether all of the cultural information applies to Ahsoka or not, since she’s a Jedi, but the most recent thing has explained her bead-and-tooth headdress she wears.  _ Apparently,  _ the teeth used to belong to a huge, orange carnivore called an akul, and because (Rex has decided) Togrutas are a little crazy, Ahsoka probably killed the thing herself when she was younger, and so she wears its teeth now.

Rex thinks she and Chopper would have gotten along.

He knew there was a reason he compared her to a dire-cat. He just didn’t think the whole… hunter thing was this literal.

But anyway, that’s cool.

He’d also reread a better explanation about Togruta montrals, and he’s decided that’s one of the coolest things that he’s read. He hasn’t exactly told Ahsoka he’s doing this research, because it seems weird to bring up. He does know that Kix had done this, when he came to the battalion, so he could actually treat Ahsoka without accidentally killing her or anything, but Rex thinks he should have looked this up ages ago. So far, at least, he hasn’t discovered that they’ve all been being offensive or anything, so that’s good.

Currently, he’s reading about their family life and upbringing - at least, the book is careful to qualify, in the larger, more mainstream areas of Togruta culture - and he thinks Ahsoka missed most of that, because of General Plo bringing her to the Jedi when she was so young. He scrolls down the page some to a heading about Togruta marriage and,  _ apparently,  _ mates, which Rex finds he sort of wants to skip, because he doesn’t really know what use he has for it anyway, but he skims over it anyway, because that seems interesting too. It’s almost at the end of the section that few short lines of text catch his eye, which he has to reread a couple of times to check his comprehension.

_ “It is considered extremely rude, and often inappropriate, for anyone who is not part of a Togruta’s immediate family to touch their montrals or headtails. This is a gesture usually kept between mates or married couples.” _

Rex looks over at Ahsoka, back down at his datapad, and then up at her again. Shit. What the  _ kriff? _ He’s been just… What the actual hells. Was anybody ever going to  _ tell him  _ this slightly important piece of information?

That would explain why she got so scared by the Son and then other people touching her headtails, afterwards, but- not him, apparently? Shit. That’s not as reassuring as it should be.

He hasn’t accidentally  _ married  _ ‘Soka or anything stupid like that, right? He’s pretty sure Cody has a story about General Kenobi accidentally marrying somebody once and having to get that whole thing annulled, because even Jedi don’t know everything about all cultures. But Cody had been drunk when he told that story, so maybe not.

_ Anyway,  _ the point is,  _ what the hells? _

He should maybe apologize? Or ask why the kriff she never bothered to mention to him that he was being really,  _ really  _ intimate because… He doesn’t know, he thought it was comforting and he was curious.

Oh, kriff him.

“You okay over there, Rex?” Ahsoka’s laughing at him, and Rex blinks, feels his face getting warm, and shrugs, turning off his datapad.

“Um, yeah,” he says, pinching the bridge of his nose. He should talk to somebody smarter than him about this. Maybe Kix knows what to do. If not, maybe he can get up enough guts to ask General Kenobi.

Or he could ask Ahsoka about it. Which sounds completely terrifying, but okay.

“How’re the reports going?” he says, like a  _ di’kut. _

“Boring,” she sighs, and pushes her datapad to the back of the desk, stretches, and glances over at him. “I don’t have to have them in until tomorrow, so I think I’m gonna quit for now.” She’s grinning, and in a good mood, although Rex is newly distracted by her  _ sharp canines,  _ since  _ apparently  _ Togrutas actually use those for hunting. Which is terrifying. But anyway.

Ahsoka comes over to his bunk and sits down, then shifts so her back is to him and flops over backwards, and he has to pull his arms and datapad out of the way so she can sprawl across his knees. Which is kind of adorable. Especially since she’s still smiling, very wide and cheerful. He decides to put his datapad away and go back to reading that book some other time. He’s a little worried about what else he’s going to read in there now.

“You’re sure being responsible,” he says, lightly.

She shrugs. “This is more fun.”

Fair. Rex adjusts his crossed legs some so that he isn’t as uncomfortable, traces the white marking that looks like an eyebrow on her forehead. “That isn’t really the  _ point  _ of responsibility, ‘Soka.” Responsibility means he has to karking talk to her about  _ mates,  _ apparently.

“Mm, I’m off-duty,” she sighs. “I don’t have to be responsible off-duty.”

“That is  _ really  _ not how that works,” Rex says, shaking his head fondly at her. “Unfortunately. You and I… you and I gotta talk,  _ cyar’ika.” _

She raises one eyebrow at him, lazy, and says, “Mm, okay, let’s talk.”

Helpful. “So I…” Shit. This is  _ so embarrassing.  _ Rex wants to go hide and not have this conversation. Although technically, none of this is his fault. “I kinda recently found out,” good start, wow, “that, uh...” He should probably just karking say it and stop being a stammering shiny. “People aren’t really supposed to touch you Togrutas’ headtails and stuff. Unless they’re married to you, or something. So, what the  _ hell?” _

~~~

Aw,  _ shit. _

Ahsoka gulps, aware she’s turning bright orange, and quickly pushes herself off of Rex’s lap, moving to sit cross-legged next to him, stares very determinedly at the bunk. “Um.” Well, great response. “Do we--have to have this conversation?”

_ Hells, _ she did  _ not _ want to talk about this, it just makes everything  _ so much more complicated _ than it needs to be, shit, dammit.

_ “Yes, _ we have to have this conversation, ‘Soka.” Shit. “I’ve been--” and he cuts off, swallows, says, awkward, “anyway, yeah, I think we gotta talk about this.”

“We really don’t,” she mutters under her breath, shifts uncomfortably on the bunk, absently starts fiddling with the casing of her shoto, turning it over and over in her hands. “Um. Well, you know that--uh, Togrutas are… kriff,” and she swallows hard, face burning, does  _ not _ look over at Rex. “Um, we--uh. Kinda have, well, mates,”  _ hells _ this is so awkward, why did he have to bring this up, “and it’s um, a gesture of--affection. And stuff. Yep.” Kriff all of this.

“Yeah, except we’re not mates,” Rex says, insistent, aw kriff, “Right?”

Ahsoka shifts uncomfortably on the bunk, continues staring at her saber, swallows again and says, “Well, uh, it’s not necessarily a--mutual thing,” she manages, can’t look at Rex. Nope. No way. She did  _ not _ want to have this little  _ chat _ in the first place, she can’t… this could change everything and they’ve  _ finally _ found a comfortable little niche of sorts in their relationship, she doesn’t want to--hells. This is  _ embarrassing. _ “So, well, not--exactly?” That shouldn’t be a  _ question, _ hells, what the kriff, she hates  _ everything _ right now.

“I’m sorry,” he says, his voice a little high,  _ “not exactly?” _

Shit. “I mean,” and this is so--well, he probably won’t be all that worried if she… twists the truth a little bit, right? Deep breath in, reach for the Force, relax. “We’re not, no, it’s not--you don’t have to worry about that. And I would’ve told you if you were doing anything, uh, wrong.”

“So I’m not--I didn’t--” Rex cuts off, and she glances over at him out of the corner of her eye, sees he’s rubbing at his forehead,  _ very _ red-faced. “So I didn’t offend you?”

“No,” she says quickly, “not at all, it’s--nice, the touching I mean. Kriff, this is the most awkward conversation I’ve ever had.”

He laughs a bit, sounds and feels a little relieved. “Me too.”

She shifts on the bunk again, twists her saber through her hands, asks, “Is there any chance we could just pretend this conversation never happened?” very sheepishly, can’t look at him again.

~~~

Rex still has a  _ lot  _ of questions, and he really wants to ask her again what she meant by  _ not exactly mates,  _ what the  _ kriff?  _ That’s not a very good answer. But he doesn’t ask those questions now, because this is so awkward. “Um, not really?” he says, apologetically.

“I just… You don’t have to change anything, it’s not like there’s something suddenly different about… this,” she says, awkwardly, gesturing between them with her saber.

Rex rubs the back of his neck, then blurts, “You mean I can- You want me to keep touching your headtails.” Well,  _ that  _ was well-put. He guesses he needs to know, though.

“Well,” and Rex glances at Ahsoka, who’s staring at her knees, “uh, duh?”

Karking hells. He’s so confused.

“But-” He stops, groans. He can’t believe this. He should never have read that dumb kriffing book. “But we’re not- I mean- I didn’t accidentally marry you or anything?”  _ That  _ is really stupid, oh gods. But he wanted to know that too. So, kriff. Little gods.

Ahsoka starts laughing, hard, although her orange skin is more rust-colored than usual with a blush. “Kriff, no,” she says, and it’s probably rude that Rex sighs with relief.

“Good. I mean- no. Shit. Gods damn it.” He buries his face in his hands. “I just- If I was gonna be… um, married to anybody,”  _ shit,  _ “I’d wanna know. But anyway.  _ Gods.” _

“Me too, Rexter, me too,” Ahsoka says fervently. Then she pauses, and it’s  _ very  _ quiet and awkward for a second, then she asks, “So can I change the subject now? Because I wanna ask you something very much not related to this… conversation.”

“Please do,” Rex mutters.

Ahsoka shifts a little, glances at him, although she’s still rust-colored. “So I was wondering if you’d be interested in- Well, you taught me hand-to-hand, and it’s… saved my life a few times,” Rex nods, smiling a little, encouraging, “and I thought maybe I could start teaching you how to use a lightsaber. If you wanted.” Rex blinks, his mind coming to a stuttering halt, and he rubs his palms on the pants of his blacks. She sounds very shy, and then she adds, rushed, “I just thought maybe it might be something you might need to know at some point, I dunno.”

Rex thinks of the number of times General Kenobi apparently drops or leaves his saber, so that Cody has to pick it up and carry it on his belt until he can get it back to his General. And he remembers Anakin telling Ahsoka once that her lightsaber is her life, so she has to take care of it.  _ And  _ he remembers the Kaminoans telling them that the Force is forbidden them, that they can’t be Jedi. He frowns, glances at her, uncertain. “Just in case, right?” he asks, strangely uncomfortable. Lightsabers aren’t for non-Jedi, that’s the way it works - Kix is supposed to get to make one, now that they’re on their way back to Coruscant, but Rex isn’t Force-sensitive like Kix.

The time he  _ was  _ didn’t exactly go well.

“Yeah, of course,” she says, grinning at him.

He still doesn’t exactly want to agree, but  _ practically,  _ it makes sense. He’s not really familiar with fighting with long blades anyway, so this would be smart to learn, it’s just…

Sabers are not supposed to be for  _ clones. _

So he nods, quickly, and grins a little. “Okay. Okay, that sounds like a good idea.” Then maybe he can protect his brothers, if worse comes to worst and something goes wrong with his Jedi.

“Yeah, I- thought so too,” Ahsoka says, shy but eager. “We could… start now, if you wanted?”

Rex fights the automatic hesitation and nerves in his chest, eases himself to his feet with a deep breath. “I don't see why not. Not in my quarters, though,” he adds, smiling.

“Of course not.” Ahsoka gets up, chuckling at him, and heads for the door of his room. “We can go to one of the salles.”

Rex hasn't even  _ been  _ in the area of the  _ Resolute _ that houses the Jedi training salles - his  _ vode  _ and him don't have any reason to intrude there, so they never do. So his stomach is twisted up into a tight knot of irrational nerves, and he focuses on keeping his shoulders back, his spine steel and straight. It's just learning to fight a new way, that's all.

He knows that isn't quite the case. But near enough.

The room Ahsoka takes him to is close to the cruiser's bridge, some floors down, and when she slides the door open, it's not entirely what he expected. Maybe it was ridiculous of him, but he thought a Jedi training room would be more mystical than it is - or at least, have more of a design than sturdy sparring mats on the floor of a big box of a room. There are some powered-down droids on the side of the room, too, and Rex hesitates a second before following Ahsoka into the training salle, finds a measured rhythm of breath.

Ahsoka turns to face him, in the middle of the room, and he steps up across from her, manages a wry, daring smile. This should be interesting. She unhooks her saber from her belt, the one she’s had since he first met her, and holds it out to him with an encouraging smile, eyes bright.

This isn’t complicated.

Anakin taught Ahsoka, and Rex knows Ahsoka says it now, that her lightsaber is her life. He thinks that’s not hyperbole. So it takes him some effort to reach out, curl his fingers around the saber hilt, and take it out of her hand.

It’s lighter than he thought.

“You should turn it on,” Ahsoka says, insistent, “Get a feel for it.”

Rex swallows a little, thinks again that he shouldn’t be doing this. It’s not that big a deal, or at least, it shouldn’t be. He eases his thumb over the switch, hesitates again, despite himself.

“It’s fine, Rex,” Ahsoka says, stepping well back, still smiling. “Promise.”

Right. Rex pushes down all the nerves and discomfort and breaths out, presses the switch so the green blade hums to life, the balance and the weight of the weapon not changing, as far as he can tell. He thought he was pretty familiar with lightsabers, but it’s entirely different holding one. He darts a smile over at Ahsoka, a bit awkward, and angles his wrist, tilting the blade back and forth, careful. It being so light is tricky, he thinks, so he’s careful. Gives himself a minute to get used to the balance and resistance, then twirls it a bit, still slow. There’s something mesmerizing about the light and sound of it.

He should ask Ahsoka how they make these.

~~~

Ahsoka can’t help a proud grin as she watches Rex experimenting with her saber, twisting his wrist and spinning the blade around, finding a feel for it; she stays back and watches until he looks a bit more comfortable, and then she takes a deep breath and says, “How’s it feel?”

“I don’t know,” he says, a little sideways grin on his face (which is absolutely  _ adorable, _ and if he wasn’t holding a very deadly weapon she’d kiss him right now). “Different, I guess.”

“Well, it would be,” she says, grinning a little herself. “Can I show you a form?”

“Okay, sure,” Rex says, and she grins at him.

“Right, so,” and she hesitates, then pulls out her shoto (grimaces a little, because the length is all wrong, and the balance, but it’ll work), shifts it to her right hand and then adjusts the grip so she’s holding it normally, instead of the reverse grip she prefers. “Just… I’ll show you, and you copy me, and then I’ll try to fix your position.”

He nods, adjusts his position, and she slides into the opening stance of Djem So, watches as Rex attempts to mimic her, steps forward and adjusts his position, the angle of the lightsaber. And then it’s just--that, over and over again, she takes him through the katas a step at a time and calls out instructions until she thinks he’s ready to switch to actually using the moves against another saber, then she steps back.

“So now that you know how to use the saber just running through the katas,” she starts, carefully, “let’s see what you can do against an actual saber.” She pauses, says, “I’ll be slow and careful, I’m not--I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” he says, dry, and then he raises his eyebrows. “Sounds fun.”

She snorts, says, “It’s fun for me, because I can actually kick your ass in this,” and she smirks a little at him, adjusts herself and switches her grip on her shoto again, passes it back into her left hand, twirls it a bit. “You ready?”

He rolls his eyes. “Not really.”

She takes that as a  _ yes _ and steps forward to attack, sparing just a moment of thought for the cluster of Force-signatures around the door (and she pretends not to notice the way Rex tenses, for just a moment, when she steps forward with her shoto raised). Is careful when she twirls her shoto around and down, gives him the time to step into the attack and parry, steps back and twists around, blocks when he steps forward to attack. “Keep your guard up higher,” she tells him, darts in and turns her shoto off at the last second before tapping the hilt against his shoulder. “If you keep the angle too low, I can stab right over and at least cripple you, if not kill you.”

She steps back, ignites her shoto again, and then it begins again, like a dance, slow but controlled. He overcorrects too high with his guard and she sneaks in another touch low on his ribs, prompting an annoyed grumble; draws back to try and bait him into coming after her. That doesn’t work as well, because he’s not an  _ idiot, _ which she’s pleased to see.

Through it all, more Force-signatures keep gathering at the door to the salle. She blocks them out of her mind,  because they aren’t  _ important _ right now, and draws her breath in and focuses.

~~~

Rex hasn’t felt this out of his depth in a fight or a spar in a long time, and he’s not particularly fond of the feeling (although the challenge, yes, he does like that). It takes so much focus to keep to the stances he’s supposed to, well enough to meet Ahsoka’s moves (and she’s so natural, and easy, she makes him feel like a bantha next to a fathier), but he is good at focusing. And learning. So although he hates that he can’t really move outside the prescribed movements of the form she showed him, he knows those are where he has to start - and he supposes he  _ will  _ keep learning this, he  _ has to,  _ now - so he keeps up the slow, slow spar, works on just getting it  _ right.  _ It’s not so strange holding the saber, now, unless he starts thinking about it, so he doesn’t think about it.

He doesn’t understand the feeling of the blades clashing; they have no weight, but then there’s  _ resistance  _ and sound and it’s strange, the balance of it is all  _ wrong  _ for what he thinks it should be. That’s what the forms are for, he guesses, to get people used to how it works. He doesn’t know. He brings ‘Soka’s saber up, neatly meets a sideways blow from her saber, automatically shifts his weight and stance to match and frees his blade, slashes towards her hip. Unsurprisingly, she blocks him.

He  _ thinks  _ he’ll like this, if he can ever karking figure it out.

He can’t get into a real rhythm, not yet, not today, but he does sort of find a few comfortable moves that she doesn’t correct after the first few times, shifts between those so he can get used to the balance and motion of the whole thing - he tries some of the others, sometimes, which usually makes her grin and get past what little guard he has to tap him with her saber hilt and then tell him what he did wrong.

They’re not going  _ fast,  _ even remotely, he knows, but they’ve sped up some by the time he senses a  _ switch  _ in Ahsoka’s style, and she smirks just a little, and he swears at her and backs off, fast, because  _ apparently  _ they’re done training for now and she just wants to kick his ass.

Because she can definitely do that,  _ easily. _ He is pretty good at keeping out of the way of a saber, though, so he manages that, for a bit, just pulls back on the defensive and dodges out of the way of her short blade, using his own (clumsily, of course, kriff it) to push her lightsaber aside or block strikes. She’s grinning, the whole time, but he’s concentrating too hard on not getting cut in half to smile back at her.

At one point he tries to duck under her saber, nearly falls, and automatically he lashes out, hits her blade aside, and he grabs her free arm to give himself leverage to get to his feet and scramble backwards. It’s undignified and not technical but it  _ works,  _ and she says, “Not bad,” with a grin, so he’ll take it.

Of course, he can’t evade her very long - she backs him into a corner, a bit, and she’s just  _ showing off,  _ really, slashes her saber against his weak defenses, just singes the sleeves of his blacks, slips in to tap her saber hilt against his shoulder and his gut and thigh, and he rolls his eyes at her despite himself.

The next time she sweeps under his saber, switching her blade off to hit his knee, he moves like he would hand-to-hand, flips off his own lightsaber to slash down for between her shoulder blades, and she tucks into a roll that means the touch hits her upper arm instead, just in time. He swears, dances back, and she moves like a striking snake and flicks her saber so close to his hand he can feel the heat of it, and he misses what she does exactly but it forces the saber hilt out of his fingers and as it falls she pulls it to her with the Force, is igniting the blade the second the hilt smacks into her palm.

She twirls both sabers, showy, and smirks at him, and Rex snorts and holds up his hands. “Shockingly,” he says, wryly, “You won. Good job.”

Before either of them can say anything else, though, there’s a round of slow, not-quite-sarcastic applause from one pair of hands, coming from the door of the salle, and Rex blinks, turns to look, and hides a grimace. Great. Fives, Jesse, Kix, and some other members of Torrent are clustered outside the door, watching them, and it is of course Jesse who’s clapping, with a big, shit-eating grin on his face.

If that was a karking  _ holorecorder  _ Rex saw Fives with, he’s going to kill the lot of them. Partly because he thinks if anyone in high brass sees a recording of a clone with a saber, he’s going to be due for disciplinary action of some kind - the new rules about Force-sensitive clones are all still under discussion, and  _ technically  _ speaking he might not be supposed to do this.

But mainly he doesn’t particularly want his  _ vode  _ spreading around a recording of him getting his ass kicked.

“Damn, Commander,” Jesse says, intelligently.

That seems like an appropriate response.

~~~

Ahsoka grins, twirls her sabers one last time before shutting off the blades and hooking them back to her belt. “Enjoying the show?” she asks, rolling her eyes a little. That was  _ definitely _ a holorecorder she saw in Fives’ hand--she suspects that the recording of this little exercise will have spread to the rest of the battalion by the end of the day.

“Yeah, sir,” Fives says, casually. “It’s not like Rex getting his ass kicked is a common event.”

She laughs at that (hears Rex grumbling from behind her), shakes her head, says, “I’m sure you’ve all got stuff to do,” with a meaningful look--the men grumble and groan, but they disperse, although Fives and Jesse make a few more comments about Rex under their breath as they go. She supposes that’s only fair, really, but it makes Rex swear under his breath.

She has a feeling those two will end up with KP.

“I should probably finish those reports,” Ahsoka says with a sigh, making a face--they’re so  _ boring, _ she doesn’t  _ want to, _ but the Council’s going to be pissed if she doesn’t hand them in tomorrow when they get to Coruscant.

“Yeah, you better,” Rex says, nodding, and she sighs again, grumbling to herself.

“Come keep me company?”

“I suppose,” he says, grinning. “If I have to.”

“C’mon, then,” and she takes his hand and tugs him with her out of the salle, back to his room, where she’d left her datapad. “Are you excited to be going back to Coruscant? I bet Kix is, what with finally getting to make his lightsaber and all.”

“I guess,” and he shrugs. “Nice to get a stopover there between battles, anyway.”

She sighs a bit, says, “I’m  _ supposed _ to be excited about it, but the Temple makes everyone get  _ weird _ and even Anakin turns into a responsible Master in there, always telling me I should meditate--as though  _ he _ meditates every day or something,” and she rolls her eyes. Sobers a bit, says, “I guess I should be more grateful, though. Because Coruscant is one of the safest places of all of us--no battles, you aren’t losing any men--but it just gets…  _ boring.” _

“Yeah, it’s just a lot of waiting,” Rex says, and that’s part of it, it’s just… she shrugs, decides not to keep going with that particular avenue of conversation. It’s not the waiting, really, it’s the everything else, the way the Jedi become so much less  _ emotional _ between the Temple’s walls, the way the mysticism and everything comes back.

“Do you think we’ll get a few days off this time?” she asks, stopping in front of the door to his room and palming it open.

“Depends on your report and Kix making his saber,” Rex says, following her into his room, going over to his bunk and sitting down with a heavy sigh. “And how the new boys are doing.”

She drops down to sit at his desk, tugging her datapad in front of her with a grimace, turns it on. “It’d be nice to get a few days of sleeping eight hours a night, but for some reason, I feel like I can pretty much guarantee that’s not gonna happen.” 

As though the words are a sign, or something, the Force  _ shivers _ with warning, and Ahsoka frowns, looks up from her datapad and stares off into the distance, reaching out, chasing down that feeling. It’s nothing, maybe, but… that didn’t feel like  _ nothing. _

~~~

When the  _ Resolute  _ pulls out of hyperspace in the Coruscant system with that faint, rumbling almost-jolt that say it’ll be another half hour or so before they’re docked on Coruscant, Rex and Ahsoka leave his room, Ahsoka heading to the bridge and him heading to the shipboard barracks to get his men organized.

Of course, by now they all know the drill: they’re getting kitted up and collecting what few belongings they have and starting to pack up some of the equipment. Rex has them leave most of it this time - they’re not supposed to be on Coruscant long, this time around, so he tells Kix to only bring his basic medpack, and tells his artillery unit to not bother about the high-caliber weapon. On longer leave, they’d unload those and do any repairs that need done, maybe replace some, but as it is he’ll just have to have some of the mechanics look at them tomorrow.

By the time the cruiser docks, Rex has his battalion organized, and he and Fives and Echo and Je’kai meet their Jedi on the bridge to walk with them into the hangar.

“Anything to report?” Anakin asks, arms crossed, and Rex settles his arms behind his back as he walks.

“No, sir. Everything’s in order. I’ve got Kix moving some of the worst wounded out of the medbay.” For the most part, their less-severely injured will stay on the  _ Resolute  _ with the junior medics, but Kix and Beten are moving three or four critical cases to Coruscant’s medbay.

Rex doesn’t think Kix anticipates their survival, even with trying to use some Force healing.

“Good.” Anakin nods, glances over at Je’kai. “Have the two battalions still been integrating smoothly?”

Rex thinks so, from what he’s seen, but he lets Je’kai answer the question, since it was more directed at him, and Je’kai’s still getting used to working with Rex’s General.

“Yes sir,” Je’kai says, carefully, just enough of a shift in his weight that Rex can tell he’s uncomfortable. “Thanks to Rex.”

Rex snorts and half-shrugs - although he appreciates the sentiment, he thinks he’s had very little to do with the transition’s success. He just has good  _ vode. _ Anakin grins at him a little, though, so Rex smiles back and accepts the compliment, nods over at Je’kai in acknowledgement. “Haven’t seen any friction myself, sir.”

“Great. I didn’t think there was any but,” Anakin shrugs, “I don’t always see stuff. Can’t be around as much as I want to be, these days.” He grimaces. They’ve been busy, and then there had been Onderon, and Anakin and General Kenobi have been busy with the Council and Naas and talking (presumably) about Anakin himself.

They step out into the bustling hangar, and Rex sighs and glances around, checking the status of his men, as Anakin’s comm pings. His General stops walking to answer, with an irritated sigh - more likely than not, it’s the Jedi Council or General Kenobi.

He’s not wrong.

It’s General Windu, sounding even more grave than usual.  _ “Skywalker, we need you and your Padawan at the Temple as soon as possible.”  _ Anakin rolls his eyes, but General WIndu’s not done.  _ “The Temple hangar was bombed by terrorists. Since you and Ahsoka were off-world, we’re going to need you to head up the investigation.” _

“Received, Master Windu,” Anakin says, sharply.

“What do you need me to do, sir?” Rex asks. If there was an attack on the  _ Jedi Temple,  _ they might need to be ready to mobilize, fast.

“Have the battalion on stand-by, Captain. We’ll keep you updated as needed-” And Anakin pauses, thinks for a moment. “Put your normal procedures on hold.”

“Yes sir.” Rex salutes, gives Ahsoka a small, encouraging smile, because the Temple is her home, where she grew up. Same for his General.

He can’t help but wonder how the  _ hell  _ anybody could manage to get explosives into the  _ Jedi Temple.  _ That’s concerning, extremely so. It’s with this in mind that he orders Fives and Echo and Je’kai to go give their new orders to Kix and those still on the  _ Resolute,  _ and he goes to organize the main body of the battalion, that’s already in the barracks.

He doesn’t like this.

~~~

The Temple hangar is a  _ mess. _

Ahsoka follows Anakin into the cavernous space, which is, for the first time in her memory, utterly dark save for the natural light coming in through the exit. There’s still smoke rising thick and black and heavy from the debris, twisted metal and blackened crates and scrapped droids, the wreckage of multiple transports, dead maintenance workers and clones not yet taken away. Multiple droids are scanning the area, looking for bomb residue, probably, but Ahsoka pays more attention to Anakin than the droids; his mind feels strange and she nudges their training bond, worried.

“I can still hear the screams,” he says, soft, and she swallows, privately thankful she’s not as attuned to the Force as he is. Most of the time it’s a good thing, a benefit, helpful, but she doesn’t want to have to listen to the screams of dead people she can’t save.

“Do you really believe it could’ve been a Jedi?” She has to ask the question. The fact that a  _ Jedi _ might bomb the  _ Temple _ is… the Temple is a sacred place, even a fallen Jedi (and she  _ knows _ that’s not as rare a thing these days as it once was, Jedi who turned away from the Light--but not even  _ Dooku _ has attempted to bomb the Temple) would respect that. Wouldn’t they?

“Not every Jedi agrees with this war, Ahsoka,” Anakin says, and she takes a few fast steps forward to catch up to him, though she keeps looking around at the carnage. No Jedi would do this. “There are many political idealists among us.”

That doesn’t explain  _ anything. _ “But a  _ traitor?” _ She shakes her head. People--innocent people,  _ Jedi-- _ were killed in the blast, many of them--most of them, probably--civilians. What Jedi would go against the Code so… horrifically?

“I’m afraid one can eventually become the other,” and she crosses her arms, stops walking a minute to just  _ look _ at her Master. He can’t be serious-- “Remember Count Dooku and General Krell--” oh yes, she’s not going to forget Krell and what he did to her men any time soon, “--that’s how they started, too.”

But Dooku left the Order a long time ago, and Krell defected, was working with the Sith--it can’t be that  _ common, _ can it? Jedi who go back on their oaths, who act in opposition of every creed they’ve ever lived by?

The thought that this might be more commonplace than it’d seemed--that there could be more Jedi turning their backs on the Order and the Light Side--is a terrifying one.

What has this war made them?

“Only analysis and investigation will prove what is true or not,” a mechanical voice interjects, and Ahsoka turns to see a small droid stepping out from the shadows of what looks like a ruined transport, holding a datapad.

“Who’re you?” Anakin asks, stepping forward.

The droid looks at them both for a moment, then returns its gaze to its datapad. “I am Russo-ISC, crime scene analyzer for the Jedi. I will be working with you and your padawan on this case,” really, interesting, Anakin’s going to be  _ so _ pleased with that, “I was assigned by Master Windu.”

Anakin comes over to stand next to her, crossing his arms, and there’s a definite thread of annoyance and displeasure in his thoughts (and that would be funnier if she wasn’t still struggling with the idea that a  _ Jedi _ might’ve been involved with this whole mess). “Okay, Russo,” he says, “you and Ahsoka should go start the interviews.”

The droid doesn’t look too pleased by that idea. “I would rather interview the witnesses alone,” it says, and Ahsoka frowns, glances up at Anakin, finds he’s looking down at her. She half-shrugs one shoulder, making a face.

“Why?”

Russo looks up from its datapad, briefly. “Many of the wounded have heard rumors that a Jedi was behind this explosion,” it explains, and she looks over at Anakin again. “There will be… ill will towards you.”

Anakin closes his eyes, looks almost  _ resigned _ for a moment before turning his gaze back to their new aid. “I think you’re overexaggerating, Russo, there were  _ Jedi _ killed in that blast as well as maintenance crew and clones.” He starts walking back towards the inside entrance to the rest of the Temple, Ahsoka at his shoulder. “Take Ahsoka with you, and let me know if you find anything.”

“I will, Master,” she says, and she tries to keep her voice from shaking.

A Jedi couldn’t have done this.

Could they?

~~~

The 501st is in a state of tight, tense readiness, has been ever since they arrived and Ahsoka and Anakin got . Neither he nor his ARC troopers have explained to the battalion that it's possible a Jedi was responsible for the bombing, although after Anakin’s first update (they have a suspect, but they don’t have much information at all) there are rumors going around and some of his  _ vode  _ have gotten anxious. Naas is huddled on his bunk in his armor cuddling Orikih, as he usually does when he gets upset, but like the rest of the men he’s alert. Because they need to be, in case their General needs them. Rex doesn’t expect the whole battalion to have to mobilize, but a terrorist attack on the Temple may be a precursor to a larger strike on Coruscant.

Rex is looking over his blaster, taking it apart some to make sure it’s all in working order, on his bunk in full armor, minus his helmet, when his wristcomm pings. Probably Anakin again, hopefully still nothing serious - last he heard, they’d taken somebody into custody, were fairly convinced of their guilt, but he’s still concerned. He answers the comm, immediately, sees his nearby  _ vode  _ turn to listen. “Rex here.”

_ “How are things on your end, Rex?”  _ It is Anakin, and he doesn’t sound too rushed, so Rex takes that to mean everything’s still under control.

“Fine, sir. We’re ready if you need anything.”

_ “That shouldn’t be necessary. The investigation and trial are out of our hands; Commander Lareen and the GAR have custody of the bomber now.” _

That makes sense. Rex nods to himself, sighs. “Am I clear to have the men go about their business, General?”

_ “Yes. I believe Ahsoka and I will be back soon.” _

Good. “Glad to hear it, sir.” Rex still doesn’t like this, the fact that somebody was angry enough to find a way to bomb the  _ Jedi Temple.  _ He knows,  _ of course  _ he knows, that sentiment against the war has been growing - people haven’t exactly grown  _ fonder  _ of clones over time, and if relations between the Jedi Council and the Senate and the GAR were tricky at the start of the war, they’ve only gotten worse. It’s just jarring that the Temple was attacked, that this doesn’t seem to have bothered as many people as it perhaps would have a year ago.

“You have the all-clear, boys,” Rex says, raising his voice. “Finish unloading and relax a bit. We should have at least a few hours.” He thinks with the investigation wrapped up, the Council will probably have a new mission for them already - at most, they’ll have till tomorrow before they have to ship out again. He might be able to catch Cody for a bit. The 212th has been on Coruscant for a little while because, as far as Rex understands it, General Kenobi was sent on an extraction mission to Mandalore, had to get the Duchess out and safely back to Coruscant.

Actually, maybe that explains the bombing, in part. With terrorists and crime families in control of Mandalore and their least favorite Duchess safe on Coruscant - maybe the bombing has something to do with that. Rex doesn’t know, probably won’t ever unless Ahsoka knows or it’s pertinent to an assignment.

“Hey,  _ vod,”  _ that’s Kix, coming into the barracks. He’s been in the Temple medbay for a few hours, so Rex hasn’t been bothering him with updates. “What’s the news?”

“The General gave us the all-clear to take some leave time,” Rex says, sighing. “They apprehended the bomber, apparently.”

Kix frowns. “Oh.”

“What’s wrong?” Rex starts reassembling his blaster with practiced fingers. He can tell Kix wants to say something else, by his posture and expression.

“I still feel… I thought there would be news, the Force still feels unsettled.”

“Kark it,” Rex says, frustrated, getting to his feet. “Of course it does. Can’t get a break around here. Don’t worry about it,  _ vod,  _ I’m sure we’ll figure out what else is gonna go wrong soon enough.” Karking Force. He’d be willing to bet that Ahsoka’s going to say something similar to him when she gets back - and since Naas is still hugging his cat,  _ he  _ probably doesn’t feel great either. (And okay, so Rex’s instincts still say he shouldn’t trust this too, which is just kriffing  _ great.) _

“You’re optimistic,” Kix snorts.

“I’m  _ realistic.  _ Go keep an eye on your patients, Kix, and I’ll let you know if I find out anything else important.” Rex claps his  _ vod  _ on the shoulder and gets up to check on a few of his more anxious  _ vode,  _ Naas included.

He’ll be glad when his Jedi get back and they can put this incident more or less behind them. He doesn’t like what it says about the world they live in now.

~~~

Ahsoka only hesitates a moment, when Commander Fox asks her to leave her lightsabers and commlink at the guard station; he and two other shock troopers escort her through the corridor to Letta’s cell, trying to understand just what’s going  _ on. _

Maybe the woman feels like she needs to explain herself?

Fox stops outside a cell and slides a keycard through the sensor, gestures to her, and she steps through the open door, looks at the woman curled up on the flat bunk in the back of the cell, her back to the wall and her knees to her chest. “What do you  _ want, _ Letta?” Ahsoka asks, stepping down the stairs and further in.

“I was told if I ever needed help,” the woman starts, adjusting her hat, “you were the Jedi to contact.” She shoots a look at Fox and the other two clones, and Ahsoka sighs. She knows how to take a hint when she sees one.

So, “Give us a minute, please,” she says, glancing back at Fox. The Commander nods, steps back and closes the door. Ahsoka crosses her arms, grits her teeth. This woman  _ will _ pay for murdering Jedi and clones. “You don’t have much time, Letta, so I suggest you get whatever you have to say  _ off your chest.” _ She rolls her eyes a bit, sighs.

Letta sighs, looks down. “The idea of feeding the nano-droids to Jakar wasn’t mine.”

What. “Why are you saying this now? Why didn’t you reveal this before?”

“Because my life is in danger. The person behind this will be able to get to me unless you know the truth.” Letta pulls her feet down, sits up, and alright, fair enough.

“Mm. What’s the truth?” This still would’ve been better to tell  _ before _ the GAR took her, but…

And Letta pushes herself up to her feet and says, simply, “A Jedi. A Jedi showed me how to create the bomb, and how to put the nano-droids in.”

No. No, that can’t be  _ right!  _ “Why would a  _ Jedi _ do this?” she demands, fast and harsh.

“There are some citizens of the Republic, like myself, who believe the Jedi Order is not what it used to be.” Fair enough. “The Jedi have become warmongers, they’ve become military weapons, and they’re killing when they should be keeping the peace. One of these Jedi  _ agreed with us. _ One of you wanted to make a statement, and was willing to hurt your own Order to do it.”

Kriffing--  _ Master, _ Ahsoka thinks, lightly, reaching across the training bond,  _ I think things just got a lot more complicated. _ “Who?”

“If you protect me, I will tell you,” Letta says, dropping back to sit down again, “because it is  _ obvious _ to me that I have been set up.” 

That’s not  _ enough. _ Ahsoka puts a hand on the other woman’s shoulder, feels Anakin nudging her back, curiosity and worry foremost in his thoughts. “Letta, you  _ have _ to tell me who’s behind this.”

The woman hesitates for a long moment, then says, very soft, “It’s--”

And the Force  _ constricts. _

Shit, shit, kriff, no, that’s not-- “Letta!” She’s being pulled up, suspended in the air by something invisible--the Force, clawing at her neck, and Ahsoka steps back, reaches up as though she could  _ stop this. _ “Letta--Letta!”

_ Snips, what’s going on? _ Anakin asks sharply, and she shakes her head, reaches out towards Letta, trying--she doesn’t know what, but she can’t  _ stop this _ and someone else is  _ choking her _ but she can’t sense anyone else, doesn’t know who it is. “Letta!”

The other woman hits the ground with a thud, and Ahsoka drops to her knees, feeling for a pulse, knowing already as she does that she’s--dead. No.  _ Shit, _ no, this can’t be  _ happening-- _

And then it gets worse.

The cell’s door flies open, and Fox and a couple troopers run in, and oh shit, this isn’t going to look good to them. “I don’t know what  _ happened,” _ she says, fast, as one of the shock troopers drops down to feel for a pulse Ahsoka knows isn’t there.

“Commander, she’s--dead.”

Kriff. Oh,  _ kriff. Master, please, something’s--someone killed Letta and they’re trying to pin it on me, I don’t-- _

They’re pulling out blasters now, aiming them at her, and Fox says, tiredly, “Can’t say I blame you, Commander Tano, but all the same. You’re under arrest.”

No. No, that’s not--that can’t be-- “I--no, no, I did  _ not  _ do this!” she says, quickly, but she puts her hands up anyway, swallowing hard.  _ Anakin, you have to--tell them, it wasn’t me, I didn’t kill her! _

_ Ahsoka, what’s going  _ **_on?_ ** Anakin feels terrified and furious, and she swallows hard, pushes herself to her feet, numbly, lets the shock troopers push her out of the cell and escort her to another one, with ray shields.

_ I don’t  _ **_know,_ ** _ Master, but someone Force-choked Letta right as--she told me a Jedi gave her the idea for the bomb, and they killed her right before she gave me a name, I couldn’t sense anyone, I don’t know what’s going on. Please, you have to help, I  _ **_didn’t do it!_ **

_ Alright, Snips, it’s okay, _ he says, and she lets out a shuddering breath, curls up on the bunk and hugs her knees tight.  _ I’ll come see you, we’ll figure this out. I promise. _

And she believes him, and he’s never let her down before, so she sends understanding and gratitude and closes her eyes, prepares to wait.


	2. Chapter 2

Rex doesn’t know  _ anything  _ and it’s driving him karking insane. Anakin comms when he’s  _ supposed  _ to be coming back to tell him that Ahsoka went to talk to the prisoner responsible for the bombing, and that somehow or other during the conversation or interrogation or whatever it was, Anakin hadn’t been very  _ specific,  _ someone had used the Force to kill the suspect but, obviously, it wasn’t Ahsoka, but she’s been incarcerated and thinks she’s being framed and so Anakin was going to try to get her out.

Which better karking work.

His  _ vode  _ are almost as tense as he is, although he’s the only one pacing and swearing; the new  _ vode,  _ the former 607th, are muttering and anxious and all clustering together, because they’re getting comfortable but this whole situation is kriffed and Rex knows, his experienced men know, that whatever Ahsoka is supposed to have done, she didn’t kill somebody in cold blood.

Not all of Krell’s old battalion are so sure. Naas has his hands pinned over his ears, but since Brii is talking to him, Rex decides to leave it be. He commed Kix, told him about it, and Kix had answered with an anxious,  _ “Acknowledged.” _

“Are you gonna go try to talk to her?” Fives asks, and Rex shrugs one shoulder, hard.

“General Skywalker’s trying to sort this mess. So hopefully she won’t be in there long enough I need to.” The GAR doesn’t have to listen to the Jedi, technically, but Ahsoka, as a Jedi, might not even be  _ allowed  _ to be held in custody without the Jedi’s approval, but he’s not sure. Either way, Anakin and Ahsoka should be able to pull together enough proof that she  _ didn’t  _ kill the prisoner that they can get her released for now, and then they’ll deal with the rest.

“I can’t believe anyone thinks  _ Commander Tano  _ would do that. I mean Fox and the boys are uptight, but they should know better.”

“Fives…” Rex says, tiredly. “We don’t even know anything.”

“What, you think they  _ seriously  _ think it was her?”

“I don’t know.  _ Ne’johaa, vod,  _ you’re not helping.”

Fives scowls at him, but subsides, and Rex tightens his fists a little, stares at his wristcomm, frustrated he hasn’t heard anything.

That changes, very fast, and in typical Skywalker fashion, as the door to the barracks slides open and their General practically sprints in (sending half of Rex’s men to their feet, either because they’re scared or because they know Anakin needs them). Rex takes a few long steps towards him, takes in his furious scowl and set shoulders, and understands that his visit to the Republic prison didn’t go very well.

“They wouldn’t let me see her,” Anakin snarls, and Rex grabs his helmet off his bunk, pulls it on with a sharp movement.

“What do you want me to do?”

“We’re going back, now.” Anakin’s already turning around again, eyes blazing. “Apparently Admiral  _ Lareen  _ has orders that the Jedi aren’t allowed to visit her.”

And Rex isn’t a Jedi. So those orders don’t apply to him. “Right. Fives, Je’kai, you’re in charge. Karking keep everyone calm.” He wants to tell them to put the men on stand-by again, but this probably isn’t an issue they can resolve with military force, not without getting themselves in  _ massive  _ trouble. Not to mention they’re all more or less ready to move out at a moment’s notice anyway.

He follows Anakin at that same near-run of a pace out of the barracks, where Anakin’s got a fighter haphazardly parked by the door, gets into the fighter with him and forces himself not to draw his blasters because this isn’t that kind of situation. But they’ve locked up his ‘Soka and they think she killed somebody and the GAR isn’t overly fond of the Jedi, perhaps least of all General Skywalker, so they won’t want to listen anyway.

But Rex is going to talk to her, and get her side of the story, so they can figure this out. And he’s going to talk to karking Commander Fox, because Fox’ll listen to him if he talks to him. You trust  _ vode,  _ almost always, and Ahsoka is his CO so what he says means something.

~~~

It’s been an hour, maybe two, since some GAR high brass lady, Admiral Lareen (the woman who had  _ apparently _ been Ahsoka’s replacement during her time on Wasskah) showed up for seemingly no other reason than to  _ gloat, _ about how “convenient” it was that the security footage for Letta’s cell didn’t have any audio. The more Ahsoka thinks about it, the more certain she is that someone’s trying to set  _ her _ up, probably the same Jedi Letta was trying to tell her about, but who? And how can she  _ hope _ to figure this out and prove her innocence while she’s trapped in this stupid little cell?

Anakin had  _ promised _ he’d come to see her, but now his side of the bond is shielded tight, anger and terror spilling out in a near-constant stream, and she doesn’t know where he is or what’s going  _ on _ and she hates all this.

She sighs, pushes herself to her feet--unable to sleep with all the anxious thoughts and the fear circling around in her brain--goes over to the sink and splashes some water on her face, and that’s when a splash of white in the corridor catches her eye. She glances over, has to do a double-take to confirm. 

A keycard?

She hopes this is Anakin’s work, and not the nameless Jedi’s.

It takes only a moment to focus and levitate the keycard up, slide it through the slot, and then the rayshields go down and she’s running out into the corridor, around a corner to the guard’s station, and she has to skid to a stop because the entire complement of troopers, except Commander Fox, is laying on the ground, half of them with helmets off, all dazed and injured, and this  _ wasn’t her _ but everyone will think it was and--

One of them is conscious.

“Hey, trooper,” she says, dropping down to crouch by him, shaking his shoulder lightly. “What’s your name? Did you see what  _ happened _ here?”

He blinks, looks at her for a moment, eyes unfocused. “Mysh, sir--Commander Tano? Aren’t you supposed to be--locked up? I know I hit my head, but I didn’t hit it  _ that _ hard.”

“Yeah, about that, Mysh,” and she hesitates, glances in the direction of the door. “I just--I need to know what happened. There’s another Jedi involved in this mess and I think I’m being set up.”

Mysh nods weakly, coughs, says, “I dunno, sir, it all happened so fast--I just saw someone in a cloak--”

“A Jedi cloak?”

He blinks, rubs at his eyes, hissing in pain. “Yeah, sir. It was definitely the Force that threw me into this wall-- _ ah, haar’chak, _ think I busted a rib. Sir, if someone’s trying to--frame you, you probably shouldn’t play right into their hands,” and he cuts off to cough again.

“Thanks for the advice,” she says, wry. “But I have to figure out what’s going on, this all has to do with covering up the Temple bombing, I don’t--”

Something catches her attention, beeping at her, insistently, a noise she’s trained into herself to  _ always _ catch. “My commlink?”

“Sir, wait--” Mysh reaches out one hand, but she’s already pushing herself to her feet, hurrying over to see her commlink and both her sabers on the ground. She crouches down, hooks the sabers to her belt, returns her commlink to her bracer, frowning. “Sir, you said--”

“I know what I said,” Ahsoka says, standing up again, tapping her commlink. “Hello? Who is this?” There’s no response, and she frowns, shrugs, turning back towards the three troopers on the floor, almost not noticing the hiss of a door opening. “Mysh, did you see anything else--”

That’s when she notices the red-armored figure in the guard’s station, and she freezes,  _ swears. _ “What’s going on here?” Fox demands, and she pales, backs up a step.

“It wasn’t me!”

Shit, shit, shit, he can’t--no, they can’t  _ believe that, _ not after all of this--but Fox is already slamming his hand down on a button and there’s an alarm blaring and shit, oh  _ shit, _ she’s gonna have to go--

“Fox, you have to  _ listen _ to me! I didn’t do any of this--ask your men! Ask Mysh, ask the other two, I didn’t have a chance to make sure they’re okay yet, someone’s  _ setting me up, _ I can’t--” but Fox isn’t  _ listening _ and the alarms are blaring and she can hear booted feet, so she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath and then she  _ runs. _

~~~

When Rex and Anakin stride into the Republic base and holding facility, something is very,  _ very  _ wrong. When they get on the lift to go to the holding cells, a trooper tries to tell them the floors are on lockdown, but Anakin, General Skywalker, keys in the floor number and a security code, overrides the lockdown.

What the  _ kriff  _ is going on?

They get down to the cellblocks, and everything’s in an uproar. Rex catches the arm of a trooper. “Status,  _ vod,  _ what’s going on?”

“The Jedi prisoner escaped, sir,” the trooper says, and  _ kark it,  _ okay, Rex isn’t even sure if he should be pleased to hear that or not. Anakin has a definite opinion, because he takes off running, so Rex follows, because Anakin seems to know where he’s going and Rex just wants to find Ahsoka before the Guard does, because she can explain it better to them.

They run through a guardroom, which is packed with troopers, medics and soldiers and injured  _ vode,  _ what the hells, and Anakin swears and runs faster, cuts down a series of hallways. Rex hears blasterfire, kriff, and running feet, and they come around another corner.

“Suspect has killed three clones,” a  _ vod  _ says, and  _ what the kriff?  _ Hells, hells, shit, who are they talking about? Not  _ Ahsoka,  _ surely. “Code Red. If you see the target, shoot to kill.”

_ Shit. _

Anakin turns so sharp around the next corner Rex thinks he almost slips, and he follows, comes into sight of Commander Fox on one knee by three  _ vode,  _ with saber burns through their armor and he chokes, a little, because he doesn’t quite  _ understand. _

“Belay that order, Commander Fox!” Anakin snaps.

Fox gets to his feet, and Rex can tell he’s angry and restless by the set of his shoulders. “She’s killed troopers!”

She wouldn’t. So somebody else did, or something else happened. “I know Commander Tano,” he says, insistent. “She would never do something like this.” She’s not like Krell, she’s never been anything but protective of him and his  _ vode. _

Fox leans forward, sharp. “Then who did?”

Kark it, Rex doesn’t  _ know,  _ but not his ‘Soka.

“Quiet,” Anakin hisses, and Rex hasn’t seen him this angry in a long time. His General looks around a second, then says, projecting so his voice echoes, “Ahsoka, it’s me, Anakin.” He pauses, and Fox looks at him, then over at Rex, like he’s confused. “Stop running.”

There’s an  _ answer,  _ thank the little gods. “You can’t help me, Master,” and what the everloving  _ kriff  _ is happening? “Someone’s setting me up.”

“I believe you, Ahsoka,” Anakin calls, and he looks relieved, because they got an answer, they can find her and talk to her and figure out what’s happening. Fox seems like he’s going to let them take point on this, so that’ll be okay too, for now. Rex clenches and unclenches one fist, waiting for the next answer.

It’s not a good one, when it comes.

“But no one else will,” she says, and that’s not right, at all. She needs to listen to them.

“Commander,” Rex calls, sharp, takes a half-step forward. “If you’d just let us try to help…”

There’s a pause, and Anakin glances at him and Rex wants to swear. Then Ahsoka says, “I’m sorry, Rex,” wrong  _ karking  _ answer, “I didn’t kill them.” No shit. And then she doesn’t say anything else, because that means she’s  _ running  _ still.

Damnit.

Anakin scowls, shakes his head, turns around with a curved tension to his shoulders. “Keep searching until we find her. Rex, call security. Tell them we need to search the entire base.  _ Now.” _

Karking hells. Anakin takes off running without waiting for him, and Rex ignores Fox, opens his wristcomm to the Republic frequency. At least if he’s calling in the orders, that puts him in charge instead of Fox, as long as he follows procedure and his General’s orders. “General Skywalker has just issued an all-points bulletin on Commander Ahsoka Tano,” he says, shaking his head, scowling behind his helmet. “She’s… killed three clones,” she  _ didn’t, _ “and should be considered armed, and dangerous.” He looks up at Fox, shakes his head a little again, and takes off down the corridor after his General.

~~~

All things considered, it’s surprisingly easy to sneak out of the base. Ahsoka just has to hide in the ventilation shafts as clones run past underneath her, drop back down, and keep sneaking through, pulling on the Force to hide herself. Anakin can’t help her, as much as she wishes he could. And Rex--

She wishes this didn’t feel like  _ goodbye. _

She wants Rex with her now, on her six, as she sprints out of the base and hides behind a giant monolith decorated with massive statues of  _ clones, _ of all things, watches as a squadron of clones with dogs of some sort go by. One almost notices her, but then its handler whistles and tugs it on, and by that point she’s already crouching on top of the statue, anyway.

This is all  _ awful _ and she wants Anakin, she wants Rex, she wants--no.

No one can help her. She’s on her own.

The doors to the base open up and she hears someone shouting, “There she is! Get her, quick, before she gets to the ship!”

Glances over and it’s  _ Fox, _ and she’s not sure where Rex and Anakin are but they’re obviously not stopping any of this, not shutting down the order, so she vaults off the top of the statue-clone’s head and runs lightly along the wall between the two monoliths, ducks under blaster bolts and reaches the end and  _ leaps, _ tucks and rolls and jerks to her feet again, running for the ship Anakin and Rex had brought. If she can get to that, she can get out, she can get  _ away, _ hide somewhere and figure out what the next move is.

Or not. A turret starts firing, and she has to weave and duck and dodge around its vivid green bolts (and her heart is pounding in her chest and her lungs ache and she’s panting and she has to  _ get away from here), _ and then just as she reaches the ship the turret’s aim changes (and for a moment there’s a flash and she sees Echo running for the shuttle on Lola Soyu, has to wrench her mind back into the present) and the ship blows and she’s thrown to the ground, gasping and panting and bruised.

She looks up, sees the troopers starting towards her again, and then she flips to her feet again, somehow, runs. For the industrial pipelines, where hopefully she can lose them.

The shock troopers are right behind her, and she hears the distinctive sound of a stun blast firing, ducks behind a railing and watches the white energy hit the durasteel and dissipate, and then she’s just running again, down the long, narrow catwalks with their railings. There are troopers following behind her and more firing at her from the next catwalk over, and at least most of those hit the railing, but the ones from behind her she can’t avoid and so she finally pulls her sabers, spins and backpedals while deflecting a few stun blasts, then turns and takes off again.

She can do this, stay ahead of them, deflect their blasts--she’s  _ good, _ she’s  _ Anakin Skywalker’s _ padawan, they have numbers but she’s got skill and they don’t know the way she fights. Don’t know the right pattern to shoot. Rex could take her down, she thinks, he’d know how to anticipate her movements, so would Fives and Jesse and the other 501st veterans, probably Cody too, she’s not sure.

Where’s Anakin, and why hasn’t he stopped this yet?

There’s the sound of transports in the distance,  _ shit, _ no, that’ll make things  _ so much harder, _ and she flips and twists out of the way of more stun blasts, crosses her sabers behind her back to block another one, spins, again and again, turns and runs again (and she can’t breathe right, everything’s aching and she’s bruised from hitting the ground too hard a few times, but she can’t stop).

She’s got to get somewhere with  _ cover. _

A transport pulls up beside her, the sides opening, revealing four of the Guard, all of whom take aim and fire, and they’re so easily keeping pace with her, and it’s just--the Force knows when the blasts will come and she jumps, handsprings over a couple, flips and tucks and rolls, never losing her forward momentum, just go, block one-two-three with her sabers and jump and twist sideways in midair again, find her feet and  _ run, _ always onward, maybe she can outrun them if she just pushes hard enough--

And then something  _ shifts _ and she has just enough time to feel  _ fear _ before a rocket hits the pipe right in front of her and it  _ explodes. _

And she falls.

Her shoto goes flying in one direction, her saber in the other, and she’s hanging from the edge of the catwalk and  _ so exposed, _ kriffing hells, Force, this is  _ not good, _ and she grits her teeth (and her arms  _ ache) _ and pulls herself up, flips through the air and lands on top of one of the pipes, takes cover and flips her hand out and calls her saber to her. The transports are coming and she  _ needs her shoto _ but she doesn’t have the time, so she has to leave it lying on the catwalk in the rain, and she flips up and lands, runs down more stairs and starts up the other side and--and one of the transports is  _ right there, _ blocking her path, and she recognizes the pilot as Oddball.

Kriff, no, she can’t--she backs up, spins on one heel and tries to run except the other transport is there and the rest of the troopers and she holds her saber out defensively, hesitates. More troopers drop out onto the pipes from the transports, and she’s frozen in a pool of too-bright white light, the transports’ spotlights, and the troopers are on both sides, have her boxed in, trapped--

Fox, Anakin, and  _ Rex _ come running up, and she’s panting and she  _ wants them, _ wants her brother, her--her Rex, and she hesitates again, staring at them. Rex has something in his hand, her shoto? and she wants him, and Anakin’s reaching out one hand, but--

But who can she  _ trust? _ A Jedi is behind this, a Jedi set her up and wants her to take the fall and she  _ will not, _ and she trusts Anakin and Rex and her battalion but she can’t trust anyone else to not ruin everything, so she meets Anakin’s eyes for a breath, shifts to look at Rex, knows she meets his eyes through his helmet, and she lets him see the  _ exhaustion _ and the fear and everything, tries to smile at him, can’t. (Was it really only yesterday they were on the  _ Resolute _ and she was showing him how to use her saber, having that incredibly awkward conversation about mates? She’d give  _ anything _ to be back there right now.)

And then she darts her eyes to one side and  _ leaps. _ Lands on top of the pipeline (and Anakin shouts  _ Ahsoka! _ but she can’t listen, can’t stop) and cuts a fast hole with her saber, ducking stun blasts again, and she drops through.

And then she runs again, her saber back on her belt.

_ I’m sorry. _

~~~

When they shoot out the pipe and Ahsoka nearly falls, Rex feels everything slow in a few moments of razor-sharp clarity. Ahsoka's short yellow saber falls out of her hands and they're going to catch her, at least, surely. He leaves Anakin, runs down to a lower series of catwalks where he can see Ahsoka's saber. He needs to get it, she'll need it back.

She's back up and running again, and Rex swears, skids on the wet catwalk and nearly falls but he swipes up her saber and pivots to run back to Anakin and her, hopefully.

He's just caught up to Anakin when they get her surrounded, everything gone white-silver in the rain and the transport floodlights. So many troopers, with blasters aimed at her, and Rex wants to tell them all to stand down but at least for the moment she's  _ right there,  _ they can talk to her, maybe, so Rex follows Anakin up to the line of troopers, curling his hand tight around Ahsoka's saber.

For a long moment, everything seems like it might be turning in their favor, some. Ahsoka's looking at them like she wants to come back, Rex can tell even with water droplets and mist obscuring his HUD somewhat, and maybe she'll listen and they can talk about this, fix it, because as it is this all looks  _ terrible  _ and she's going to get herself in real deep trouble. Might have already, but they've been here, they can help explain. Then there's a shift in her expression, and her stance, and she looks at Anakin, then straight at Rex, and she looks so tired and scared and confused and he wants to yell at her to please come back so they can help. Her lips twitch in a half smile, then she glances away, tenses, and  _ jumps  _ entirely out of their reach onto a pipe and his  _ vode, _ who didn't know her well enough to expect that, don't shoot fast enough.

Anakin yells for her but she doesn't answer them, just slices a hole in the metal and drops through, and  _ little gods damnit  _ why couldn't she just come with them?

He clips Ahsoka’s saber to his belt and runs faster, this time, with Anakin and Fox, because they’ve been too far behind her and they’re so close, now, they could still get to her. They climb up onto the pipe after four troopers, and drop in, the sounds of booted feet running through the water inches deep on the metal floor of the pipe already getting ahead of them.

Rex doesn’t have to be a Jedi to feel how terrified Anakin is.

He sticks close to Anakin, because he knows Anakin is probably using the Force to track Ahsoka where the shocktroopers can’t, and they run through the pipes in the water (it’s hard to keep a good grip, here) and Rex can hear so much comm chatter and he thinks at least half the Guard is here. He wishes he had his men.

He almost doesn’t notice Anakin jolt to a stop, keeps running a few steps but then registers his General standing still with his head tilted like the Jedi always seem to do when they’re sensing new information. Rex stops, strides back to him (Fox follows, which makes sense but Rex sort of wishes he wouldn’t), and rests his hands on his blasters, because that’s comforting.

“This way,” Anakin says, tersely and quietly, so of course Rex follows him down the pipeline he indicates, and they’re being quieter now, which makes sense. Anakin doesn’t say much, because really they just need to get to Ahsoka and get her safe, however they can.

_ Hells,  _ Rex wishes his squads were handling this instead of Fox’s. Although it’s probably for the best that Krell’s former troopers aren’t anywhere near this.

Not all of them would believe Ahsoka killed  _ vode,  _ but some of them have seen too much to have reason to believe it  _ wasn’t  _ her.

They run through some kind of ventilation fans, the water getting deeper so that turning sharp corners is  _ hard  _ in all his armor, but he keeps up with Anakin anyway. Down another pipeline which ends abruptly in a wide space where the water collects and probably drains, so they just jump down, out of their pipe, and Rex catches a fleeting glimpse of Ahsoka, they’re  _ so close. _

And then they run after her, cut through the pipes and Anakin stops, suddenly, turns, and there’s Ahsoka, outlined as a vague silhouette against open space - the end of the pipe system, Rex guesses, where everything drains out on a lower level of Coruscant.

“Ahsoka, what are you doing?” Anakin asks, low, anxious, and he just walks towards her, and Rex goes too although he doesn’t trust this, very much. He knows her, and he knows who taught her most of her tricks. He wants to think they’ve caught her, but really he’s not sure.

“You didn’t even try to come and help me,” Ahsoka says, fast, turning around, and Rex reaches up to pull his helmet off, tucking it under his arm.

“They wouldn’t let me in to talk to you,” Anakin protests, gesturing vaguely at Fox.

Ahsoka shakes her head, hard. “You could have, if you’d tried!”

The way Anakin is walking down the pipe reminds Rex of Obi-Wan with Naas, or Naas himself with the spooked stray chokleraptor that accidentally got stuck in their barracks once. It makes sense. Ahsoka’s  _ scared  _ and they want to help her, not make her feel like they don’t believe her. Because they do, Rex doesn’t know what’s going on but he doesn’t know his ‘Soka isn’t a killer.

“How would that look, Ahsoka? Huh? Forcing my way in would’ve made you look even  _ more  _ guilty, that’s why I went to get Rex.”

“I’m  _ not  _ guilty!” Ahsoka looks between Anakin and Rex, frustrated and desperate, and Rex finds himself nodding. “I didn’t kill Letta and I’d  _ never  _ kill troopers.”

“I know,” Rex says. “We know that, Ahsoka, we just-” He glances at Anakin for help, and his General takes another step forward.

“We have to prove you’re innocent,” he says, holding out one hand a little, like he wants her to take it. “The only way we can do that is by going back.”

He’s right. Nobody’s going to listen to them if they don’t even have  _ her  _ full side of the story to defend her with and she just keeps running away. If she’s here, Rex can protect her, some, and then there’s Anakin and General Kenobi and, he thinks, General Plo, they can do things for her if they do this  _ right. _

“I don’t know  _ who to trust,” _ Ahsoka insists, and Rex rests one hand on her saber on his belt.

“Trust us, sir,” he says, firmly. “Please.”

“I  _ do  _ trust you, you know that, but I can’t trust anyone else,” she says, shaking her head almost automatically, her voice taut and quivering with frustration and desperation. “There’s a Jedi trying to make me take the fall for something  _ I didn’t do  _ and I don’t know who, and it could be  _ anyone.”  _ She takes a step back, towards the edge of the pipe, and Anakin and Rex both move a few steps forward in response because she better not karking jump. She needs to  _ come back. _ “It could be someone on the  _ Council  _ for all I know, and this isn’t under Jedi jurisdiction anymore. Do you think the GAR’s gonna wanna let me go? You know what they did when I was missing for five days.”

“I would never let anyone hurt you, Ahsoka,” Anakin insists, raw.  _ “Never.  _ But I need you to put your lightsaber down and come back and make your case to the Council.” Ahsoka’s already shaking her head, and Anakin’s voice goes sharp. “That’s an  _ order,  _ Ahsoka.”

Fox has his hands on his blasters, and Rex wants to snap at him to just go away and let them figure this out, but it’s a little late for that now. Ahsoka’s eyes dart to Fox, then she shifts back again, to the very edge of the pipe, and looks back. Shit.

“Ahsoka,” Rex starts, warning, because she can’t just  _ run  _ again, they can’t do anything for her if she’s a fugitive somewhere on Coruscant and they don’t know where she is.

She doesn’t totally acknowledge him, just keeps looking out over the open space (a drainage and ventilation shaft, Rex thinks, so it’s connected to most of Coruscant’s levels; she could get almost anywhere from here), evaluating.

“I- I can’t.” Gods, she means that. Ahsoka tucks her arms around her stomach for a second, looks out of the pipe - there’s a supply transport of some type descending past them, throwing the pipe into shadow. “I’m sorry, I wish I could,” she says, shaky, and Rex takes a couple steps forward to, he doesn’t know, catch her? Comfort her? Light floods the pipe again once the transport is past, and Ahsoka looks down, and Rex karking knows that look. Kriffing Jedi.

He sees two things at once: first, a glitter of moisture on her cheek that he thinks is probably tears, and second, her stance shifting as she gathers herself, some, and he jams his helmet back on his head with a soft curse as she throws herself out of the pipe, and he knows she’s aiming for the descending transport ship.

He beats Anakin and Fox to the edge of the pipe, looks down, judges the distance and catches Ahsoka looking at them.

She can’t be by herself, he doesn’t trust anything about this and he’d be worrying the whole time. And she doesn’t have her other saber, it’s still on his belt. Anakin looks at him, and Rex sighs.

Why is it always karking  _ heights  _ with the two of them?

“I’ll keep an eye on her, sir,” he says, resignedly, makes sure her saber is secure on his belt. Checks the distance again. He better go.

He kriffing hates his life sometimes, he thinks, and jumps after Ahsoka.

~~~

She hadn’t meant to start crying. But she’s so--she’s cold and soaking wet and no one’s  _ listening _ and they all think she  _ killed clones _ and killed Letta and there’s a Jedi that no one’s even  _ looking for  _ because they all think it’s her, and she  _ knows _ running is suspicious but if she’s stuck in the GAR’s custody no one will  _ ever _ be able to get her acquitted and so--

So she has to run.

She hadn’t expected to see, when she glances back up from her perch on the freighter,  _ Rex _ jumping out of the pipe she’d been in. Anakin and Fox both aren’t moving, which means--which means he’s coming after her because he doesn’t want her to be alone, because he knows she needs him, but he doesn’t even have a jetpack, that’s so  _ stupid, _ what an  _ idiot, _ he can’t--she throws her hands out when he’s just a few meters away, pulls on the Force and stops his momentum, holds him for half a second and then lets him drop the rest of the way. He twists in midair, lands and goes down to one knee, stands up again and tugs his bucket off.

She doesn’t think he’s ever looked so--so  _ beautiful, _ before, just standing there across from her, helmet under his arm, and she thinks she might be crying again, she’s not sure. And then he reaches down to his belt and for a second she tenses, can’t help it, she knows his orders--but he’s just pulling her shoto-- _ her shoto!-- _ off his belt and holding it out to her.

“I think you dropped this,” he says, so light, and she takes it in a trembling hand and hooks it to her belt and then she’s flinging herself at him, clinging hard, and she tugs his head down so she can kiss him fierce and desperate, pulls back and presses her head against his chest, even though his armor isn’t very comfortable.

“Everything’s gone to banthashit, Rex,” she breathes, almost choking, “and I didn’t do it and no one will listen to me that there’s another Jedi out there  _ doing this _ and everyone just keeps thinking it’s me, I can’t--I thought--they left a keycard outside my cell and I thought it was Anakin’s plan but when I got to the guardroom they’d injured three troopers and left my lightsabers and commlink. I--talked to one of them, Mysh, said a Jedi in a cloak was the one who did it, but I don’t know--then Fox came in and found me and I had to run, Rex, there wasn’t any other choice!” She’s shaking, panting, crying again, and she clings to him almost desperately.

He has to believe her, she can’t--she doesn’t know what she’ll  _ do _ if he doesn’t. And  _ Force, _ she loves him, needs him, and everything’s gone wrong but she hopes--hopes he’ll still be here, still stay with her.

His arms are tight around her shoulders and he says, “Okay, okay, ‘Soka,” thank the  _ Force, _ hells, kriff. “Shit, you sure stepped in it this time, didn’t you?” He’s so wry and warm and he’s  _ here _ and she can’t--it’s too  _ much, _ she can’t do this.

“I don’t  _ understand,” _ she whispers, shaky and small, “I was just--I didn’t  _ do anything _ and I would  _ never _ and they can’t--I don’t trust the Guard, they don’t know me, they don’t--if it was our boys, they’d  _ listen, _ they’d--you have to believe me, Rex, I didn’t want any of this, I  _ didn’t!” _

“I know you didn’t,” he soothes, rubs his hand up and down her spine. “We’ll figure it out, okay? I’ll comm Fives and Cody, update them so they know what’s going on, and then we’ll find somewhere to lay low.”

That--that could work, so she nods, hesitantly. “Okay,” she says, soft, squeezes her arms tighter around his chest for a minute. “Okay, I--I have to figure out what’s going on, I need to know who did this, I have to investigate it. I can’t, can’t trust anyone to actually--prove my innocence, I have to… do it myself.” She shakes her head, shudders, pulls back a bit, although she tucks herself into his side, because that’s better, safer. She’s still crying, although not as much, and she takes a shivering breath, tries to swallow everything  _ down. _ “We’ll have to get you some civvies, hide your armor somewhere, and I need a cloak.”

“Okay,” he says again, “we’ll figure all that out.”

And that’s good, and she trusts him, loves him, so she nods and presses closer, waits for the freighter to stop at a level. They’ll figure it out. It’ll be okay.

~~~

Rex shouldn’t use the Republic comms, probably, but he’s got to talk to his  _ vode  _ before he can lose his comms. He tunes his wristcomm to Fives’ frequency, stays at Ahsoka’s side as she heads toward the edge of the transport ship so they can get off and out of the open.

He’s going to have to get out of his armor, a clone is conspicuous enough, these days, and a clone officer with blue-painted armor and jaig eyes on his helmet is still more so. The transport starts slowing to dock somewhere, and Rex crouches a bit to keep his balance and be less noticeable (not much less, but still). When the ship’s fully landed, he jumps down to the street after Ahsoka, follows her away from the transport to duck down a tiny, smoky side street. He smiles at Ahsoka, touches her shoulder briefly, and then comms Fives.

“Fives, come in, Fives,” he says, shortly, gets an immediate answer.

_ “Captain, what’s going on?”  _ Rex isn’t surprised that Fives sounds terrified.  _ “We’re hearing some rumors, nothing good. Please tell me the General has a plan.” _

“The General has a plan,” Rex says dryly. “Probably. Listen up,  _ vod.  _ The Commander and I are a bit… busy. She’s been accused of killing the suspect of the Temple bombing, and attacking and killing troopers. You know the Guard, they didn’t see anyone else, so-”

_ “What the  _ **_kriff,_ ** _ sir?”  _ Fives swears, interrupting him.  _ “What’s actually going on?” _

“We don’t know. Ahsoka says she’s being framed, but I don’t think anyone else but me and the General believe her yet, so she and I are looking for proof.” Which is just great. Rex really wishes she’d go back and let Anakin help.

_ “Karking hells.”  _ There’s a pause.  _ “What do you need us to do, Rex?” _

“Hells if I know. Just try to keep everyone calm, please, and- Can you make sure the men know what’s going on? And Cody?” It’s better if the battalion hears this now than if they hear any more rumors or have to help find Ahsoka without really knowing what’s going on.

There’s a general grumble of displeasure from his  _ vod,  _ but then he says,  _ “Sure, sir. Tell the Commander- I don’t know, sir, but I hope you figure this out in a hurry.” _

Ahsoka steps over to him, leans close to his wristcomm. “Fives,” she says, “I’d  _ never  _ kill troopers,” insistent.

Fives doesn’t seem at all surprised to hear her.  _ “Yeah, I know, sir. But what the hells?”  _ He grumbles a bit more, then says,  _ “Okay, sirs, I’m on it. Don’t do anything stupid.” _

“Too late,” Rex huffs, cuts off the signal and reluctantly drops his comm and steps on it. A GAR standard-issue commlink isn’t going to be a good idea to hang onto. “Well, ‘Soka, I guess we better get moving.”

She nods, taking a shaky but deep breath. “We need to find you some civvies and me a cloak. I bet I can find a store around here.”

“You’re Coruscant’s most wanted and you want to go shopping,” Rex says dryly. “I don’t think we wanna just waltz into a shop right now, Ahsoka.”

“I’m not going to  _ shop,”  _ she huffs. “I’m gonna steal some shit. Nicely.”

“Oh my gods.” Rex rubs his forehead and unhooks his kama from his belt, and starts unbuckling his winged pauldron, so he can at least just carry those more distinctive armor pieces. “A truly desperate criminal.”

“What else am I supposed to do?” she snaps, rolling her eyes. “You can’t go around in your blacks.”

A fair point. Everything Rex has is GAR-issued, his blacks, his armor, his boots, his blasters,  _ all  _ of it. His face, too. So it’s not really great for clandestine travel. “Alright. Let’s go, then. I hope you have a plan.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're still reading, we'd love to hear from you!

It only takes a few minutes to find a shop decently large enough that Ahsoka can slip in, holding the Force tight around her so she’s less obvious; she pretends to browse, quietly finds an outfit and boots and a mid-length leather jacket that she  _ thinks _ should all fit Rex, and a cloak for her, and then it’s easy to just… walk out, head bowed, towards the alley where Rex is hiding. As soon as she gets out of sight of the rest of the main thoroughfare, she drops her acquisitions on the ground, pulls the cloak out and puts it on, pulls the hood up. “This’ll help, at least,” she says, and then she touches Rex’s arm, lightly. “I’ll keep watch while you change--I know somewhere we can hide your armor. I think.”

Rex sighs. “Alright,” he says, and he doesn’t sound like he’s super comfortable, but they both know this is--you do what you must. So she turns and slips through the shadows to the end of the alley, watches until Rex comes up behind her and says, “All clear, sir.”

She turns to look at him, has to do a double-take--it turns out the leather jacket fits  _ perfectly, _ and now is  _ really _ not the time, but she can’t help noticing the way the rich brown makes his bronze skin and gold hair  _ warmer. _ “You ready to go?” she asks, soft, tries to sound less vulnerable than she feels.

“I guess,” he says, with another sigh. His arms are full of blue and white plastoid and he ducks his head, half-hiding his face behind the jacket’s collar.

They won’t look too out of place once they get to the lower levels, but for now they’ll have to be careful.

“Alright. Do you remember that cafe we went to, when we were looking for a sketchbook for Brii? I’m good friends with the owner, and she showed me a back room that’s been set up for someone to sleep in, if they need to. She told me if I ever needed to get away from Anakin for some reason or another I could stay there, so… I think we can hide your armor there.”

He nods. “I’ve heard worse ideas. Let’s go.”

_ Worse ideas _ probably includes some of Hardcase’s more ambitious stunts, and her own decision to jump out of a series of storm drains and run away from the police. But anyway. Focusing.

It’s not too long of a walk, a few minutes of slipping through the edges of crowds and staying in the shadows as much as possible, and then she’s leading him to the back door of the cafe, glancing around for observers before reaching for the Force (and that’s getting harder to do, now, she’s getting tired, and all her myriad of bruises are reasserting themselves, and they  _ hurt), _ waving her hand a little and unlocking the door. 

The room is warm and dry, which is the most important thing--it’s small, a bedroom and an attached ‘fresher, a decent-sized bed that takes up most of the space, a couple armchairs and a table in one corner, and that’s all. Another door leads into the main room of the cafe, but Ahsoka ignores that for now, drops down to sit onto the bed and closes her eyes, for a second. “We can… hide your armor under the bed, probably,” she says, gesturing vaguely, and Rex starts to do that, and then the door  _ opens. _

Kriffing--her eyes fly open and she shoves off the bed, her green saber jerking into her hand and igniting, and she holds it defensively across her body, rubs at her eyes and tries to  _ breathe. _

It’s just the owner, Lissa, looking mildly concerned; Ahsoka shuts her saber off fast and hooks it back to her belt. “Ahsoka, what’s wrong?” the older woman asks, and Ahsoka collapses back on the bed, buries her face in her hands.

“Everything.”

~~~

Rex sort of recognizes the woman who’s come into the room, but doesn’t let himself relax anyway. Right now, he hardly even trusts his  _ vode  _ and the Jedi, much less random Coruscanti citizens. He wants to get this figured out so things can go back to normal - sort of. Gods, his men - Fives has them, hopefully.

“Could you elaborate?” the woman asks, glancing at him, and Rex crosses his arms defensively. By now he’s sure the all-points bulletin has been extended to the rest of Coruscant’s police forces, and he doesn’t know what this woman knows about that - hopefully nothing so far, although he doesn’t think it’ll take them long to put out warnings to the public.

A rogue Jedi is dangerous enough to warrant that, he thinks.

_ Gods,  _ he hopes Anakin can come up with something, or else that Ahsoka finds a way to prove her innocence, like she wanted to. He doesn’t karking know how they can, though, not with the entire Guard searching for them - maybe more by now, he just doesn’t have information.

“Do you want that alphabetically or by order of importance or…?” Ahsoka asks, flat. Rex snorts quietly. “The Temple was bombed, the person who did it told me a Jedi was behind it but was murdered with the Force before she gave me a name, and now I’m being framed for her murder and for killing clones, and I didn’t do  _ any of it.” _ Rex automatically reaches out and sets his hand on her shoulder, eyes the cafe owner appraisingly.

“I see.” The woman frowns and crosses her arms. “What about your Master, where’s he?”

“He’s… looking for me,” Ahsoka says, quietly. “He wants me to come back, says I need to talk to the Council. But they don’t have jurisdiction, this is all the GAR, and the GAR wants me gone  _ anyway  _ so they can have someone in  _ my  _ battalion.” She’s scowling, when she finishes, frustrated, arms crossed over her stomach.

The woman sighs. “I can’t say I understand all of the politics of this war,” she says, seriously, “But if you’re needing a place to lay low, you can stay here. For a bit,” and she glances back toward the door, and (presumably) her customers. “I don’t think it will be a good idea for you to stay long.” Nodding at Rex and his armor on the floor, she adds, “If you need somewhere to keep that, I can find a place for it.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Rex says, shortly, nodding. “That would be appreciated.”

She smiles a little at him, inclines her head. She’s rubbing her hands together, thoughtfully. “Please be careful, Ahsoka.” Rex thinks she’s asking as much for her own sake as Ahsoka’s - harboring two fugitives is a risky move, even if she didn’t understand what from. Then she turns and leaves the room, closing the door behind her, and Ahsoka slumps a bit again, sighing.

“So we have a little time, anyway,” Rex says, going to sit by her. He left his bracers on under his new jacket, and his blasters are still comforting weight on his hips, but he doesn’t like being forced to leave his armor somewhere. They need to come up with a plan, but he thinks he better give Ahsoka a little while before pressing her for her strategy. “I’m sure General Skywalker will find something to help you. He always does.”

“I know,” she says, but she doesn’t sound sure. “I can’t believe they all think it was me, Rex.” She glances at him, aching, confused, and Rex doesn’t know what to tell her.

“The men don’t,” he says, “and General Skywalker. Hells, I’m not sure even Fox knows what to think.”

She shrugs a little and looks back down. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Yeah. Me neither.” Rex debates a second, then suggests, carefully, “Couldn’t we at least try going back? You don’t even have to turn yourself in, but if we just- We could go to the barracks, meet General Skywalker and you can tell him all of this. He can help you better than I can if he just knows how, you know that.”

Ahsoka hesitates, then shakes her head, slowly. “I don’t know who’s setting me up - it could be anybody. I can’t risk it.” She sighs. “I  _ want  _ to, but I can’t.”

Rex nods, reluctantly. “Fair enough.” Gods, he’d feel better about all this if he even had a way to contact his men and his General, but he couldn’t have used his comm, and if they want to use public communication devices they’ll have to be so careful. “So do you have a plan for how to figure this out? We’re flying blind here, at least I am.” So he hopes she’s got a course plotted or they’re both going to be in deep shit. They at least need a  _ lead. _

He’s trusting her, of  _ course  _ he is, he’d just like to know what they’re doing.

He wishes he had a way to keep up with the Guard’s movements, and Anakin’s. He wishes he had his  _ vode.  _ But he never seems to get what he wants, anyway, least of all today.

~~~

Ahsoka hesitates, swallows, leans into Rex’s side and closes her eyes. “I need to contact Barriss,” she says, and he slips an arm around her. He’s warm and dry and  _ safe _ and she presses closer to him, shivers a little. “She’s my best friend in the Order, I know she’ll help--she’s really good at doing research, I’m sure she can find something to help us out.” A pause, and then she adds, “Will you get in trouble for following me and not--not turning me in?”

Rex shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

She swallows hard, slips an arm around his waist and holds on tight, whispers, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he says, very quiet, shrugs one shoulder.

And then they just sit, for a while, until some of the shivers have stopped, and then Ahsoka pulls back from Rex a bit, hissing as her sore muscles protest. “Apparently,” she says, wryly, “falling off stuff and almost getting blown up makes you sore. Who’d’ve thought?” Rex laughs a little, and she sighs. “I better comm Barriss,” she says, and then adjusts her commlink, taps it. “Barriss? It’s Ahsoka.”

_ “Ahsoka, I’m so glad you’re safe,”  _ comes the response, and Ahsoka sighs, grimacing a bit.

“Safe, but on the run.”

_ “Where?” _

“I can’t tell you,” that’s just being smart and careful, “but someone is  _ definitely _ trying to frame me.”

_ “It’s not safe for you to call me using the Jedi communicator,” _ Barriss says, and  _ duh, _ Ahsoka knows that, but right now that’s all she’s got.  _ “Find another way to contact me.” _

“I will,” she says, firmly.

_ “In the meantime, I’ll do some digging and see if I can find anything to help you out on my end.” _

Ahsoka lets out a soft sigh of relief. “Thank you, Barriss.” Good old dependable Barriss. “I knew I could count on you.”

She imagines Barriss is smiling when she says,  _ “Be safe,” _ before disconnecting the comm; Ahsoka hesitates for a minute before pulling the commlink itself off her wrist and standing, dropping it on the floor and grinding it beneath her heel until it shatters.

“Well,” she says, after a moment, “I’m cold, and sore, so I’m going to take a shower.” She stretches carefully, wincing a bit, tugs off her boots and unbuckles her bracers and gauntlets, tugs off the gloves Cody’d given her and the armor from Rex, sets it all on the bed along with her new cloak. Rex is quiet, so she shrugs and goes into the ‘fresher, takes a scalding-hot shower, the water burning the chill out of her bones and helping with the sore muscles and the bruises.

She takes a few minutes to try and organize her thoughts, too. An unidentified Jedi is unhappy with the way the war is going and with what the Jedi are becoming, and decided to enlist the help of political activists to bomb the Temple to make a statement. Anakin had made a comment, back when they very first spoke to the Council about all this, about how if the perpetrator was willing to go to great lengths to hide themselves, they’d have to go to even greater lengths to expose them.  _ (So why isn’t your Master doing that now?) _ Since ‘great lengths’ apparently includes framing another Jedi, ‘greater lengths’ means going rogue and figuring it out on her own.

She can’t trust anyone anymore, just Rex and Barriss, Anakin of a sort, and  _ maybe _ Obi-Wan and Master Plo--she knows they wouldn’t do anything like this, the Council wouldn’t, but they might tell the framer and that Jedi would then be able to influence things again, so. So she needs to stick to only talking to the people she knows she can trust absolutely not to talk to anybody else.

Thus, Rex and Barriss.

Ahsoka finally gets out of the shower, dries off and shimmies back into her still-damp leggings, tugs her dress over her head and buckles her belt on again, returning her akul-tooth headdress and her padawan braid to their rightful places, can’t help absently playing with the silka beads as she walks back into the main room, barefoot on the soft floor. She’s still a Jedi, for now. But how long until the Council… will they disown her? The evidence is  _ so _ damning, although maybe Mysh’s testimony will help, she’s not sure. Still, as it stands, they have footage with no audio (and  _ how convenient, _ Admiral Lareen had said) that could conceivably show Ahsoka choking Letta (as though she’d ever  _ do that), _ and three clones killed by lightsabers when she was the only Jedi around (theoretically, except Ahsoka  _ knows _ there had to be another one somewhere), and then, of course, she ran. Resisting arrest.

This just keeps getting worse and worse, and she has no idea how to stop it. It’s like she’s been thrown into Kamino’s oceans and told “learn how to swim”. 

Sink or swim, they say, but right now Ahsoka feels like she’s drowning.

~~~

Rex looks up when Ahsoka comes out of the fresher, sits up straighter and sets one hand down on the bed to hold his weight, some. It’s been a long day, and she looks tired.  _ Is  _ tired, he knows, so when she comes over to sit down next to him, he puts his free arm around her shoulders. He thinks they’ll need to get moving again,  _ soon,  _ before anybody tracks them here.

“I think we should rest, for a little while,” she tells him, leaning into his side like she could fall asleep against his shoulder, which in any other circumstance would be nice.

Rex sighs. “Probably. But we- Well, sir, what’s our next move, after?” They need to know, because at least Commander Offee is looking into things but until they have more answers they need a plan of their own.

“We go down to the lower levels and blend in with the criminals and the poor, and I find somewhere to comm Barriss.”

“Okay.” It’s a good enough plan, it has an objective, at least.

Karking hells, even if they prove Ahsoka’s innocent, the GAR isn’t going to be pleased with Rex. He tightens his arm around Ahsoka, sighing. He abandoned an in-progress investigation to band together with a fugitive, against orders (although not direct orders, so Anakin may be able to cover for him), and is aiding her in resisting arrest. It could be worse, but it could be a hell of a lot better.

This all would explain why Kix said the Force still didn’t feel good.

Rex hopes Naas is alright. He’s better, lately, but things like this… The Force apparently still hurts him.

So many reasons to just  _ love  _ the Force.

He doesn't really want to try to sleep, but Ahsoka's tired and it's important that  _ she  _ gets rest, so he scoots back, nudges her a little so he can lay down, and she lays down too, tucking her knees up to her stomach and pressing her forehead to his collarbone. He puts an arm around her, sighs, and closes his eyes.

Everything has gone very, very wrong.

“Don't worry, ‘'Soka,” he says. “We'll figure this out.”

She nods a little, but doesn't answer, and he tries to relax enough to give himself permission to sleep. It's going to be a long night, he thinks, so if they can at least get half an hour or so of sleep, it will be better.

“Love you,” ‘Soka says, and Rex chuckles just a little.

“Love you too.”

They do not end up getting more than about forty-five minutes, Rex thinks, before he wakes up again; he doesn't want to wake Ahsoka up but the cafe owner said they couldn't stay long and he doesn't think staying in one place very long is a good idea yet. People will have seen them near here in their usual clothes and armor, and if they want to find proof… they better start looking.

“Hey, Ahsoka.” He eases himself upright, gently shakes her shoulder so he doesn't startle her. “We should get moving.”

She blinks awake with a wide, close-eyed yawn like a loth-cat, making him smile a little, and then she looks around a bit, frowns, and sighs. He thinks he almost sees the moment she remembers all her worries and concerns, because she looks up at him with a grimacing attempt at a smile and says, “Okay, yeah, you're right.”

Rex isn't entirely sure how to help her. Whatever else may have gone wrong, however often he's failed, somehow his men and his Jedi have never doubted him, not once. He doesn't know what he'd feel like if they did, and he doesn't know how to comfort Ahsoka and he doesn't know how to prove to everyone who doesn't believe her (which is still a smaller number, he thinks, than she seems to believe) that she wouldn't turn on them all.

So he guesses he just have to help the way he told Anakin he would: be here, keep an eye on her, make sure he does what he can to keep her safe and help her figure this out. Two heads are better than one, after all, right?

He thinks.

~~~

They’re ready to go fast, and Ahsoka wishes she could do something to thank Lissa for risking her business and her life to harbor them for a couple hours. She knows, realistically, there’s nothing much they can do right now, except get out before they’re found, but still.

Maybe after this mess is over, if it ever ends.  _ (If the Jedi still want you.) _

She shivers a bit, tries to ignore the darker thoughts that’ve been growing steadily more pervasive as the night wears on, pulls the hood of her cloak up over her face. It’s long enough it hides her sabers, and as long as she keeps her head down, no one will see her too-distinctive markings.

She’s less-obviously the Jedi the Undercity police will be searching for, now.

The streets aren’t as crowded this late at night, but there’s still enough people around that she and Rex are able to vanish into the crowd easily enough; she heads for a tram station, thinking at least it’ll be a bit easier to get to a lift to take them down to a lower level if she does. Rex stays beside her, at her shoulder, and her fingers itch to take his hand--her instinct is, of course, to keep a  _ professional _ amount of distance between them, but they aren’t having to be Captain and Commander right now, Jedi and clone. Instead they’re a pair of fugitives trying to blend in to the crowd.

So she lets herself reach out and thread their fingers together, holding tight, his hand a warm reassurance that she’s not alone out here, that everything will be okay.

It’s almost too easy to slip onto the tram, to stand lazy in one corner, by the door, wait for it to come to a stop so they can step out again, on a platform near some turbolifts. She leads Rex over to one, steps inside and presses a button (for level 1312), squeezes his hand tighter again and watches out the lift’s transparisteel sides as they descend.

The lift finally stops and they step out, and Ahsoka’s heading for an alleyway (keeping her head down, trying to ignore the ‘wanted’ signs with her face splashed all over them, flashing across screens everywhere) when she sees the lower-level police droids approaching, heading in their direction. They’ve been spotted,  _ kriff, _ if those droids get too close they’ll know who she and Rex are, but if they run, it’s obvious. So how--

Oh.

She has an idea.

Ahsoka turns to Rex, fast, tugs him closer to her, lets her gaze flick meaningfully to the police droids before she looks back up, meets his eyes, and says, “Kiss me.”

~~~

Rex has a lot of questions, in that exact moment, but all that comes out is, “What?” hissed quickly and quietly, without looking at the police droids.

She raises an eyebrow at him, smiling a little. “There are  _ police droids  _ coming, either we run and get flagged as suspicious or you  _ kiss me  _ and they move on.”

Rex is confused as to how  _ those  _ are their two options.

“I know which one  _ I’d  _ rather do,” Ahsoka prompts him, partly urgent, partly like it’s a challenge, and he doesn’t get it but he decides to go with it. Quickly slides an arm around her waist and pulls her close so he can bend down and kiss her, feels her curl one hand in the collar of his jacket. And weird idea or no, this is pretty damn nice, so he’s not complaining.

He nearly jolts away from Ahsoka (except she’s holding too tight to his collar) when he hears a police droid behind him, but the droid is just muttering, “Get a room.” Apparently it’s working.

Rex isn’t in a big hurry to  _ stop  _ kissing, now, but Ahsoka pulls back after a minute, which probably means they’re clear for the time being, and smirks at him, clearly pleased with herself (for good reason). They had places to be, and when he looks around the droids are in fact gone, so he exhales slowly and takes Ahsoka’s hand again, and they thread through the crowd, off the main thoroughfare. Even here on the lower levels it probably won’t be a good idea to be seen; wanted posters don’t mean so much in the lower parts of Coruscant, but when the wanted criminal is a  _ Jedi  _ \- Rex suspects they’ll have a large reward, or good incentives, for anyone who reports on a rogue Jedi.

They turn down an alley, empty aside from some loth-cats and skittering lizards. Rex automatically shifts his free hand to one of his blasters under his jacket, because the lower levels of Coruscant aren’t safe, and certainly not on the back streets.

Ahsoka looks more wary too, uncertain, and he frowns. Blames the uncertain feeling in his gut on the refuse-strewn street and the broken window shutters and loose doors along their way.

Then there’s a scuff of noise,  _ almost  _ inconsequential, except Rex knows not to ignore small things. So he’s turning around, fingers curling around his blaster, when he’s hit with a wave of Force that he can’t quite withstand and slams into the concrete ground. Ahsoka hits next to him, and then there are  _ sabers,  _ violent red, two of them, and Rex starts to push himself up but he’s stopped by one of the sabers humming nearly against his throat. Ahsoka’s being similarly threatened, their attacker (tall, slim, masked) standing over her and holding her arms down, presumably with the Force.

Shit.

Well, it seems they’ve found their saboteur, anyway.

“Well, well,” the person says, voice distorted and roughened by a modulator, “I didn’t believe it when I first heard it, but I guess it’s true. The Senate has put a bounty on your horned little head.”

Shit. Rex carefully, carefully shifts his hand towards his blaster, because their attacker (a woman, and he focuses and examines the mask, the sabers, thinks he knows who this is) is focusing on Ahsoka, not him. They really don’t need to be dealing with bounty hunters, too. There’s laughter, and then he’s proved correct: the woman hits a button on the side of her mask, flips the visor up, and it’s Ventress, smirking like a pleased cat.

This explains a lot.

“And I’m going to be the one who collects,” Ventress says, which is just  _ great. _

“So I guess you’re the one who set this all up?” Ahsoka snaps, and Rex glances at her, doesn’t like how close the saber is to her neck. He inches his hand still closer to his blaster. “You really have it out for me, Ventress.” The Sith raises an eyebrow (or, well, she  _ would be,  _ if she had eyebrows), like she doesn’t get it. Ahsoka seems to be trying to get her arm free from Ventress’ hold. “You really don’t have to try so hard to get my attention.”

Rex snorts, despite himself, gets a frosty look from Ventress.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the Sith says, but she still isn’t letting them up and Rex doesn’t really put a lot of stock in what she says, anyway.

“I think you do,” Ahsoka says, sharp, and Rex’s fingers touch his blaster and then he can’t move any further, gets a smirking glance from Ventress.  _ Kark it. _ “So what are you now, a bounty hunter?”

“Yes. And somebody who knows how to make easy money.”

Well, that wasn’t  _ entirely  _ the answer Rex expected. He also doesn’t expect Ventress to let them up, but that’s exactly what she does - unfortunately, that’s only  _ after  _ she’s used the Force to casually take Ahsoka’s sabers  _ and  _ his blasters. Shit. Not the vibroknife in his boot, though, and he’s not going to let her know she missed it.

Ventress pushes them both into a walk, and Rex meets Ahsoka’s eyes, frowning. Well, this doesn’t look good, but the positive is they may be about to get some answers. So it could be worse.

~~~

Ahsoka frowns, crosses her arms, wishes she could glare at Ventress. “So you just expect me to believe that you’re hanging around Coruscant and you  _ aren’t _ the person who’s trying to frame me for murder,” she says, flatly, rolling her eyes. As if.

Bounty hunter or not, she’s  _ Ventress. _ And it makes much more sense for a Sith to be behind all this--better yet, a Sith pretending to be a Jedi, to make the public’s opinion of the Jedi even worse--than for a Jedi to turn that far against the Order.

“You can believe whatever you want, so long as I get paid,” Ventress says, and Ahsoka swears under her breath, tries to twist free of Ventress’ hand on her shoulder, to no avail.

“Ventress, you  _ can’t _ turn me in,” Ahsoka says, fast. Is it really possible the Sith  _ doesn’t _ know what’s going on? “Someone--I thought it makes more sense if it’s you, not a Jedi--is trying to frame me for murder, and probably the Temple bombing too, if Admiral Lareen’s reaction is anything to go by, and I’m trying to prove it’s  _ not me. _ If you take me back, the GAR will have me and I’ll never get a chance or a fair trial.”

Ventress snorts. “What they do with you once I turn you in isn’t my problem.”

No, that’s not--Ahsoka shakes her head, fumbling for something to say. “I know Dooku tried to have you killed,” she tries, all in a rush, as Ventress pushes them out onto a landing platform in one of the massive ventilation shafts that run through Coruscant’s levels. “We have a lot more in common than I thought. And I could use your help.”

Ventress considers this for a moment, then asks, “What’s in it for me?”

Ahsoka twists, turning around to face the Sith-turned-bounty hunter, says, “I’ll speak to the Senate on your behalf, get you a full pardon for your crimes.”

Rex makes a small noise of protest, but Ahsoka focuses on Ventress, who cocks an eyebrow and says, “I’m listening.”

Ahsoka hesitates (because this is probably not the  _ best _ idea she’s ever had), says, “And I’ll owe you a favor, with restrictions--I reserve the right to tell you what I will and won’t help you with. What do you say?”

“Ahsoka,” Rex says, warningly, but she makes the hand signal for  _ be quiet _ at him, doesn’t look away from Ventress. Yes, she  _ knows _ this is a bad idea, but it’s either this or be captured, and at least with the restrictions on the favor she won’t have to kill someone (probably) to fulfill it.

“A pardon  _ and _ a favor,” Ventress says, cocking her head to one side. “Sounds like a deal, Padawan--but if it starts looking like the Senate can offer a better one, consider our deal  _ off.” _

“Of course,” Ahsoka says, nodding, and Ventress pulls her hands from her and Rex’s shoulders, although she doesn’t give them their weapons back. Which is only smart, really, Ahsoka can’t blame her. “We need to get somewhere we aren’t so exposed--” and she cuts off mid-word as her bond with Anakin goes live-wire with emotions. Shit. She spins around, sees a transport descending (though it’s still high up), its sides open, and inside it she can see several of the Coruscant Guard and Anakin and Jesse in his familiar armor. Shit, shit,  _ shit, _ they need to kriffing  _ move! _

~~~

Rex has almost never been so glad to see his General and Jesse, even though they’re both looking intense, frustrated - Rex thinks Jesse meets his eyes, but then Ventress takes off running away from the central ventilation shaft and he and Ahsoka follow. There are floodlights, and shouting, and Rex looks back over his shoulder to see Anakin, just a dark shape against the light, jumping out of the transport to land crouched on the ground, just as Ventress stops and hits a panel of buttons that makes a ray shield hiss to life between them and Anakin.

Rex stops running and grabs Ahsoka’s arm, ignores Ventress and Anakin for a minute. “‘Soka, wait. We should talk to him, at least, please.” Anakin’s skidded to a stop by the ray shield, and behind him Rex sees the transport get low enough that Jesse jumps free of it too, and Rex catches him signalling  _ wait  _ at the Guard shocktroopers.

“I’m not lowering the rayshields,” she says.

“That’s not what I meant. Just… you should tell him what happened, he doesn’t even know your side of things, fully, and he can’t help if he doesn’t know.” Rex glances over at them again, catches Jesse’s eye and half-smiles.

She hesitates, shifts her weight to her right foot, and says, “Okay.”

Thank the little gods.

“We need to go,” Ventress rasps, irritably.

“You,” Rex says, “need to  _ shut up  _ for a minute.”

Ventress curls her lip in a sneer. “Watch it, clone. I never said I’d play nice with you.”

She’ll have to, or Ahsoka’s likely to change their deal, but that’s not the point, so Rex ignores her and strides up to the ray shields, and Ahsoka follows him after shooting a warning glare at Ventress.

Anakin looks  _ painfully  _ relieved to see them come up to him, leans forward so close to the ray shields Rex wants to tell him to be careful. “Ahsoka,” he says, coaxing, “I know you’re trying to prove your innocence, but I need you to  _ come back,  _ please.” He shifts a little, uncertain, and says, “Come home.”

Hells,  _ Rex  _ wants to. He glances at Jesse, who gives him a questioning look, and Rex lifts one shoulder in a tiny shrug.

“I can’t do that yet, Anakin,” Ahsoka says, and Rex stifles disappointment. “I’m sorry. But I can try to explain things from my side,” she suggests, almost nervously.

“I wish you would,” Anakin says. Jesse, in comfortable parade rest, nods agreement.

Ahsoka takes a deep breath, careful, glances between Anakin and Jesse and the transports. “I went to see Letta straight from the Council meeting, as requested," she says, seriously. “Fox and a pair of shocktroopers let me in, and I asked them to give us a minute alone - she wouldn't talk while they were there. She told me that she'd been told that if she was ever in trouble, I was the Jedi to contact - which to me makes it obvious that the plan was to frame me all along." She sighs, and Rex thinks that makes sense. Who would have told her that, though? “Remember what you said about some of the Jedi being political idealists?” and Anakin nods. “Well, Letta said that a Jedi agreed with her and a group of activists who believe that the Order has strayed from our path, and that this Jedi was willing to attack us to make a point. It was the Jedi who gave Letta the idea of feeding the nanodroids to Jakar. Letta believed her life was in danger, and that she'd been set up to take the fall, which turned out to be true.

“I asked Letta to give me a name, to tell me  _ who _ the Jedi was. She started to tell me, but someone started to Force-choke her before she could get the name out. I was the only person around and I couldn't sense anyone, so Fox arrested me. Admiral Lareen came by to talk to me after a bit, said I didn't need to explain anything-” Shit, that’s just  _ great, _ “-when I questioned her about that, she said that all cells have security cameras - she showed me the one of Letta's cell, and added that it was  _ convenient _ that the audio didn't work in that one, and that she thought the Jedi Letta was afraid of was me.”

Damn, it does all sound… Well, not good. Whoever set this up is smart. Anakin scowls, hisses, “That asshole.” Which is appropriate.

“I knew there was a reason I didn’t like her,” Jesse mutters, and Rex snorts. There were  _ many  _ reasons his men didn’t like Commander Lareen, apparently.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Ahsoka sighs, tiredly, with the tiniest smile. “Anyway, a little while later, maybe a couple hours, I noticed someone had left a keycard outside the cell's rayshields. At first I thought it was you, Master, so I used the Force to unlock my cell and went to the guardroom. That's when I realized that this was someone else's doing, because the three troopers there had all been attacked pretty badly, hand to hand. Two of them were unconscious, but I was able to talk to the third - his name was Mysh. He told me that someone in a cloak definitely used the Force against them. He was injured, I'm not sure about the other two-”

Anakin’s jaw tightens, and he shakes his head a little. “They died.”

Rex scowls, and Ahsoka looks down, closing her eyes, and swallows. Who the  _ hells  _ did this, killing his brothers to make Ahsoka look guilty, setting her up to be put in prison and then break out - he glances back at Ventress again. He’s still not entirely sure it isn’t her.

If he finds out it was  _ her  _ doing this, she’s going to have a lot more to worry about than how to use Ahsoka’s favor.

Ahsoka sighs, rubs her hands together, and continues, after a moment. “Someone had gotten my lightsabers and my commlink and left them out on the floor. I picked them up and was turning to ask Mysh if he'd seen anything else when Fox came back into the guard station. He hit the alarm and I realized how it looked, so I ran. Was doing okay avoiding the shocktroopers - I wasn't going to fight them, obviously - when I turned a corner and ran right into three clones that'd been killed by a saber.” One of them just a technician, Rex had seen, not even armored. Karking  _ hells. _ “Fox came around the corner and saw me and started shooting, I didn't know what to do and I was scared, so I just kept running. And then... you and Rex came and tried to talk to me, and you know the rest.”

_ “Haar’chak,”  _ Jesse mutters, which just about sums up Rex’s feeling about the whole thing. “I just wonder, sir…” He pauses, rubs the back of his neck, and lowers his voice. “What the  _ hells  _ are you doing with the-” He stops, clearing his throat. “With  _ Ventress?” _

“Well, the Senate’s put a bounty on my head, so it was either let her turn me in or make a deal. And she knows the lower levels way better than I do, she can help us figure things out.” Rex scowls, because the logic makes sense but  _ gods damn it _ he hates it. Jesse doesn’t look pleased either. “The only person in the Temple I’ve been talking to is Barriss, she’s promised to help me do some digging.”

Hopefully Barriss has found something by now - hells, maybe she and Anakin can work together. Anything would be better than running around blindly following Ventress, really.

~~~

It feels better than Ahsoka could’ve imagined, to get it all  _ out, _ into the open; she watches Anakin’s face and waits for a response, a judgement maybe--she doesn’t know.

Instead, what he says is, “Can I show this all to Obi-Wan?” very carefully. “He’ll keep this quiet until we know more, I know that, and I think he could help.”

She hesitates, glances behind Anakin at the Coruscant Guard, who are, somehow, still staying back, still waiting, and then she nods. “I know you have to look for me,” she says, very quiet, “GAR’s and Council’s orders, right?” He nods, and she keeps going. “I can’t tell you where I’m going next, because I don’t know, but I’m going to try to get in secure contact with Barriss and see if she’s found anything. I’ll find a way to contact you if I can put any pieces together.”

“Good,” Anakin says, and although his eyes are still worried, he at least feels more relaxed. “If you get into trouble,” and he lowers his voice more, “don’t hesitate to call for me. I’ll come.”

“You always do,” she says, light, tries to smile.

“Sir,” Jesse says, and she looks over at him, sees worry and concern on his face. “Please come back soon.”

“I’ll do my best, Jesse, I promise.” Ahsoka smiles a little, adds, “What, you don’t think I’ll just  _ abandon _ you guys, do you?”

“Of course not,” he says hastily, shaking his head, and she grins wider.

“Good. I’ll keep in touch, Master,” she says, refocusing, and he inclines his head.

“May the Force be with you.”

“Thanks.” She’ll need it.

Anakin turns, starts heading back towards the transport, and Ahsoka goes to turn too, except Jesse’s just--standing, hesitating, looking at her and then Rex like he wants something, and Rex says, very casually, “Jesse, I could use your help watching the Commander’s back,” and he gestures loosely at Ventress, who rolls her eyes.

Jesse glances back over his shoulder at Anakin, who’s stopped walking and is watching them, hesitant but cautiously approving, and then nods. “Yes, sir, I’d--like that.”

Ventress makes a sort of scoffing noise in her throat, derisive, but she doesn’t outright  _ say _ anything, which Ahsoka takes to mean she isn’t going to just leave. Which is good--they still need her help.

She’ll have to lower the rayshields to let Jesse through.

As soon as she does, the shocktroopers will come running to try and get to her, so she’ll have to be fast.

“Don’t take too long in crossing, Jesse,” she says, and the trooper nods, and she crosses over to the controls. Waits for just a second, and then presses the button--and with a  _ vworp _ of sound, the rayshields deactivate.

And the Guard comes running, of course they do, leaping out of the transport with blasters yanking up, and Jesse hurries across and Ahsoka slams her palm down on the button again, activating the rayshields just as a round of stun pulses slam into them.

Safe again.

Rex steps forward and pulls Jesse into a hug, and Ahsoka looks over at Anakin one last time, nods at him.

She’ll stay safe, and she’ll figure this out, and everything’s going to be  _ fine. _

“I need somewhere I can contact my friend,” Ahsoka tells Ventress, turning away from the rayshields. “Someplace private.”

“I know a place,” Ventress says, although she eyes Jesse with thinly-veiled derision. “I want his blaster, before we go anywhere.”

Ahsoka sighs, grimacing a bit--Jesse’s not going to be very happy about  _ that, _ that’s for sure.

But this is going to work out. It  _ has to. _

~~~

Jesse doesn’t even move for his blaster, just looks at Rex as if to say  _ seriously?  _ and Rex sighs.

“Just for a while,  _ vod.” _

Jesse swears under his breath, but he draws his blaster with a sharp movement, hesitates, glances at Rex again, and then holds it out, lip curling in a dark scowl. Ventress takes it from him and slings it over her shoulder.

Ahsoka crosses her arms as they start walking, blue eyes sharp. “If you hurt them our deal’s off. So play nice,  _ Ventress.” _

Ventress snorts. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything to your little pets.” She pats Jesse on the shoulder, making him glare so hard Rex half-expects her to catch fire. “Haven’t you heard? I’ve reformed.”

“Banthashit,” Jesse mutters, looking at Rex again.

Rex shrugs.  _ “Udesii,”  _ he sighs.

“Karking hells.”

“Can you  _ not,”  _ Ahsoka hisses, “call them pets?”

Ventress laughs, but Rex doesn’t really care, because Ahsoka’s defense is good enough for him. Maybe not for Jesse; he just looks furious. “I’m not  _ that  _ reformed,” Ventress says, dismissive, and turns to face front again.

Wolffe is definitely right about her. She’s a bitch.

“Of course you aren’t,” Ahsoka mutters as they turn down an alley and Ventress starts them up a thin metal staircase. Jesse snorts, pulls his helmet out from under his arm and turns it around in his hands.

“The men are worried,” he says, quiet, but loud enough Rex and Ahsoka can both hear. “We didn’t really know what was going on and Naas and Kix were saying the Force wasn’t right, so that didn’t help.”

Rex tightens his lips, sighing. He wants to ask about the new troopers, but he suspects the answer won’t exactly help Ahsoka.

“Do they- do they think I did it?” Ahsoka asks, softly, nervous.

Jesse glances at Rex, then looks down. “No, sir. Naas keeps saying you didn’t.”

Rex blinks. That surprises him, a little, but then again Naas and Ahsoka have been making friends, some, ever since Ahsoka bought Naas a little blue collar for Orikih and showed him how she meditates (on the rare occasion that she does).

Ahsoka sighs, very quiet, and says, “Okay. Okay, good.”

Rex can’t wait till this is over. But he’s very glad, for now, that Jesse is here. The two of them together can protect Ahsoka better than he can by himself. And he’s grateful that Jesse actually stayed - Rex is sure he knows that this could land both he and Jesse in trouble, but then again they’re not exactly new to that anymore.

And technically, this time, Rex can say he gave Jesse an order. He didn’t, not really, but he asked him to come, so if they get in a fix they can’t get out of, then Rex can take the fall for it without stretching the truth much. Hopefully that won’t be necessary, though.

Ventress leads them along some shaky catwalks, across a couple roofs and down to another alleyway, wider. There’s a public holographic booth on one side of the alley, with ragged strips of posters advertising clubs and bars peeling off the sides of it. Rex waves Jesse to stand on one side of the booth and keep watch out the side of the alley for the police, raises an eyebrow at Ahsoka as she crouches and pulls a panel off the front of the holo booth, starts fiddling with the wires.

“Sir, are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asks. He’s pretty sure tampering with public communication systems is illegal, and they don’t really need to keep  _ actually  _ breaking the law.

He really is gonna be due for disciplinary action. Kriff it.

~~~

“I don’t want them to be able to trace it,” Ahsoka says, rolling her eyes a little. “Just because Anakin and I have… an agreement doesn’t mean everybody else has abandoned the search.”

She ignores whatever response Rex makes, if there is any, instead entering Barriss’ frequency. “Barriss, it’s me.”

_ “Ahsoka,” _ Barriss says, a holo of her flickering to blue life slowly from the cracked projector.  _ “It’s so good to see you. Are you okay?” _

“Yeah, I’m okay,” and she sighs, leans on the edge of the booth. “If you consider Jedi Masters and a hundred clones on my tail a  _ good space _ to be in.”

“You were almost captured?”

“Only once, but I talked to Anakin through a rayshield, explained to him what happened. He’s going to try to help, actually--he said he might get in touch with you.” That will help, Ahsoka thinks, if the two Jedi on her side work together.

Barriss purses her lips, frowning a bit.  _ “Ahsoka, I know he’s your Master, but are you sure you can trust him? Anyone could be behind this.” _

Ahsoka frowns, shaking her head. “Anakin wouldn’t  _ do that, _ Barriss, and besides--he was in the wrong place to set this up.”

_ “Of course,” _ Barriss says, neutral.  _ “Where are you?” _

“I can’t tell you that.” Still. That’s a precaution, it hasn’t changed.

_ “I believe I’ve found a clue,”  _ Barriss says, and Ahsoka straightens a bit.

“A clue? How? From where?” How could she have already dug something up?

_ “We don’t have much time, Ahsoka. I need to know where you are.” _

Ahsoka grits her teeth, sighs, grabs the edge of the booth again. “Fine. I’m on level 1312.”

_ “Three levels up, there seems to be an abandoned warehouse,” _ Barriss says,  _ “where they seemed to be building munitions that Letta visited during the time she was getting access to the nanodroids.” _

Ahsoka tilts her head to one side, considering. “How did you find this out?” That’s oddly  _ specific _ information, but it could be useful--maybe there’s something in that warehouse she could use.

_ “I  _ **_told_ ** _ you I would do some checking,” _ Barriss says, and Ahsoka lets out a sigh of relief. This just might be the thing that lets her find out who’s really behind all this mess.

“Thank you, Barriss.”

_ “Be careful, Ahsoka,” _ Barriss says, warmly, and then the holo flickers off. Ahsoka stares at the empty space where it used to be for half a second before sighing and pulling back, nodding at Rex and Jesse both, who are keeping a lookout.

“Well?” Ventress asks, walking back over from where she’s been leaning against a pole.

“I think I have a lead.”

“It doesn’t seem like you  _ need _ my help,” Ventress says, which is definitely not true (although it’s more true now that Jesse’s here, but still--they don’t know their way around).

“That’s not true. We need to find an abandoned munitions warehouse on level 1315. We should be able to find some information there.” Ventress frowns a bit, her eyes widening some, and Ahsoka narrows her eyes. “You know the place I’m talking about, don’t you?”

“Yes. I can get you there.”

Good.

~~~

A lead is good, Rex thinks, walking over to Ahsoka and Ventress, Jesse leaving his post to join them. Soon they’ll be able to get rid of Ventress, as long as this pans out alright.

Or, he thinks, registering booted footsteps just before a squad of about a dozen shocktroopers materializes out of the shadows of the surrounding buildings, maybe not as soon as he’d like.

He automatically settles into a fighting stance, loose but ready, and then it gets (somehow)  _ worse,  _ because  _ Cody _ pushes through the squad and into the lead, and he doesn’t have to take off his helmet for Rex to know his  _ ori’vod  _ is  _ pissed. _ Cody levels his blaster at them, steadily.

“I’m gonna need you all to stand down,  _ now,  _ and come with me,” Cody growls, short, and Rex can tell if he  _ had  _ any patience for this situation, it’s long gone. Rex glances over at Ahsoka, because it’s up to her to call the shots, right now.

“I’m sorry,” Ahsoka says, and Rex tenses, shoots a look at Jesse, who he thinks looks determined, “but I can’t do that, Cody. I don’t want to fight you.”

“I do,” Ventress mutters,  _ unhelpfully,  _ lowering the visor of her mask.

Cody’s grip on his blaster tightens, and Rex shifts his weight a little. “That’s an  _ order,  _ Commander Tano.” Because Cody outranks Ahsoka, and maybe Ahsoka isn’t really known for following orders anyway, but the problem is that now they’ll be adding disobeying a direct order from a superior officer to what is now  _ apparently  _ a list of crimes.

Rex wants his blasters, but Ventress isn’t close enough that he can get them from her, and if he tried that would  _ definitely  _ be considered a threat, and he knows how his  _ ori’vod _ would respond. They’d end up stunned before he’d even switched his own blaster to the stun setting.

Ahsoka slides one foot back, some, raising her hands and settling partly into a crouch. Shit. Rex wishes he was surprised. “Cody, I’m not going to hurt you.” Cody snorts.  _ “None of us  _ will hurt you,” Ahsoka adds, looking over at Ventress, who sighs audibly. Rex grits his teeth, debates if he can get to Ventress and swipe one of his blasters before the fight gets too messy. “But the GAR’s trying to make me their scapegoat and I won’t take that fall. I’m not standing down.”

“Then we’re taking you in, Commander Tano.”

Rex also wishes he was surprised by  _ that. _ Karking hells. “Cody-” he starts, but Cody cuts him off.

“I’m not in the mood, Rex,” he snaps, and Rex steps back, swallowing.

This was  _ definitely  _ not how he thought their short leave was going to go.

“That’s not going to happen,” Ahsoka says, tense, hands curling into fists.

Rex isn’t sure who moves first, but all in the same moment one of the shocktroopers fires a stun blast and Ventress ignites both her sabers and  _ oh hells  _ she’s going to kill his  _ vode. _ He doesn’t have time to think about that, though, has to dive out of the way of a couple stun blasts and rush into close quarters where blasters won’t be as effective. There are clatters of blasters hitting the ground, though: Ventress,  _ not  _ killing his  _ vode,  _ has cut their weapons in half, and Cody’s hands are empty - Ahsoka's doing, Rex thinks. Jesse grabs Cody’s blaster off the ground, stuns a few of the Guard, and Rex punches a shocktrooper’s helmet, cracking their HUD and his knuckles,  _ gods.  _ Slams his knee into their gut, ducks a roundhouse kick from another  _ vod  _ and catches his attacker’s ankle, yanks them off balance.

Ahsoka Force-shoves three troopers down, he sees Jesse and Ventress fighting some others (together, what the  _ hells  _ is his life), and he grabs a blaster off one of his groaning  _ vode  _ and twists around, finds himself facing Cody and another  _ vod. _ Shit.

“Stand  _ down, ori’vod,” _ Cody snaps, fierce, almost pleading, and Rex chances a quick look around, hesitates. He doesn’t- Shit. If he’s  _ fast,  _ he can definitely stun the other trooper and probably duck a shot from Cody (who has, of course, re-armed himself). These days, though, when he and Cody spar, it’s usually a toss-up who’s going to win, and this isn’t sparring.

And he  _ does not  _ want to fight his  _ ori’vod. _ Can’t, he almost thinks. But he can’t stand down, either, that wasn’t the point of going with Ahsoka.

He doesn’t have armor, but that can’t be helped.

He’s just shifted his aim, a fraction, when Ahsoka stumbles back against the trooper next to Cody, flinging her hands out to push another trooper away from her, and it’s automatic for Rex to take advantage of the brief second of distraction to shoot one, two, stun the trooper and Cody - except Cody dodges it, barely, and fires back, but he's off balance still so Rex drops into a crouch to avoid his shot and fires again, just manages to clip Cody's hip with the stun blast.

It's enough. Cody falls in a clatter of armor.

Karking hells.

Oh  _ shit. _

He turns and stuns the last  _ vod  _ Jesse is fighting with, tosses the blaster onto the ground, and looks over at Cody.  _ Shit. _

Everything is suddenly very quiet, and without thinking, Rex rubs his hand over his right forearm, feeling the stiffness of his plastoid bracer under his new jacket. He sees Ventress putting her sabers away, and Jesse putting his borrowed blaster down, and Ahsoka straightens, looks at Cody, then over at Rex, and back at Cody. Then she turns and walks over to Rex, and he tries to muster up a smile, doesn’t  _ quite  _ manage it, for a moment.

It helps when she puts her arms around him and hugs him so, so tight. He wraps his own arms around her shoulders, swallows a bit. Notices Ventress staring at them like she can’t believe they have the audacity to be so disgusting in front of her.

“We better go, sirs,” Jesse says, sounding reluctant. Some of their  _ vode  _ are already recovering a little, apparently, so Rex pulls back from Ahsoka and gestures slightly at Ventress.

“Fair enough. You know where we’re going?”

“Yes, if you two are finished being  _ sentimental,”  _ Ventress says dryly.

“Kriff off.” Ahsoka scowls, squaring her shoulders, and Rex snorts. He supposes she’s probably even more tired than he is.

As they walk away from the alley and the holobooth and all of Rex’s injured  _ vode,  _ he deliberately doesn’t look at Cody, or even the shocktroopers much. He’s just trying to protect Ahsoka, so he didn’t have better options. He’s doing the best he can, and he can make it up to Cody later, somehow.

For now he just needs to help Ahsoka prove she’s innocent so all of this can  _ stop. _


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorta an interlude chapter to show what's going on with the rest of the kids while Rex and Ahsoka and friends are out trying to prove her innocence.
> 
> we have relocated to behind the couch once again, with our laptops and blankets and some mac and cheese and pizza.

When General Skywalker comes back into the barracks, some hours after he last came in, grabbing Jesse and storming out, for a moment Je’kai thinks this is all over, this nightmare. Thinks that they can relax, that Commander Tano has been found--Naas says she  _ didn’t _ do what she’s being accused of, but Je’kai is not so sure.

The fact of the matter is that  _ someone _ killed those clones, and Commander Tano was the only one around.

He’s not saying for certain that she’s the one behind all this, but she is a Jedi, and while Je’kai thinks highly of her and General Skywalker, he has seen too many of his  _ vode _ die at the hands of a Jedi to entirely believe that it  _ wasn’t _ her.

The General still looks  _ angry, _ which Je’kai takes to mean the Commander has  _ not _ been found. “Fives,” he barks out, and the ARC trooper leaps to his feet, “I need you.”

“Where’s Jesse?” Fives asks, and General Skywalker makes a face.

“He stayed with Rex and Ahsoka. I need you with me to run search patterns, you’ve got seniority. Echo, Je’kai, you’re in charge.”

_ Gods, _ Je’kai doesn’t like this. But that does not matter, so he straightens, falls into attention easily, nods, salutes. “Yes, sir.”

Echo outranks him, so Echo is the one who is  _ really _ in charge. But it is nice of Skywalker to remember Je’kai. 

Fives goes with the General, and Je’kai looks over at Naas, notes he looks--scared, clinging tightly to Orikih, hunched over and small. 

Je’kai will have to ask his  _ vod’ika _ if he really still thinks the Commander is innocent.

(Except Rex went with her, to watch her back, and now Jesse’s gone too, and they’re both going to get into so much trouble. What does that mean?)

He doesn’t know what’s going on anymore, and he wishes that didn’t  _ terrify _ him, but it does. Because safety has always been that he knows the rules and can stick to them, can break them when he needs to to protect his  _ vode; _ but now the rules have changed, and Je’kai doesn’t know where that leaves him.

What can he do for his brothers now?

~~~

The whispers spread through the battalion even faster after General Skywalker leaves again with Echo’s  _ ori’vod, _ questions and fears because nobody knows what’s going on. Their Captain and Commander left, and now Jesse’s gone with them, and  _ vode  _ were killed by  _ someone,  _ and Echo’s sure that Commander Tano would never kill any of them (she came back for him, helped Fives save his life, so he  _ knows). _ He just doesn’t know what’s  _ really  _ happening. It’s good that Rex and Jesse are with her though, he thinks. They can help her, and get her back to them.

He just wants things to make  _ sense. _

For now, though, that has to be secondary. As ARC-lieutenant, he’s the most senior officer here, and half the battalion (the 607th; at times like these, he still thinks of them as another battalion, because the 501st is just different sometimes) is nervous, more so than the 501st veterans. Because many of them think that Commander Tano did it, killed the bomber and the troopers, but Echo would swear on his armor and his blasters and his life that she didn’t, he just… he knows.

Fives knows too. Fives wanted to go find her and Rex and help them, but Rex left him in charge and Echo told him to just calm down and wait to hear from him or the General.

Now Jesse’s, well, like Rex, Jesse’s deserted, at least for now, and Fives is helping chase them down, and now Echo’s in charge of a full battalion of jittery  _ vode,  _ one of whom General Kenobi says they’re still supposed to be careful of and many of whom have no reason to believe that a Jedi wouldn’t kill  _ vode. _

So he doesn’t know what to do. Keep things in order, he guesses, try to be ready in case General Skywalker needs them. In case they need to help Commander Tano.

She’s innocent, he  _ knows it. _

Echo walks over to Naas and Brii and Alpha, all of whom look intensely worried. Brii also still looks like he wants to run off to,help Commander Tano, as he's he's wanted to do this entire time.

“How're you all doing?” Echo asks, carefully, touching Brii's shoulder.

“She didn't do it,” Brii answers, firmly, crossing his arms. “Right?”

“Right,” Echo answers.

Naas shakes his head. “I don't- It's so  _ bad,  _ sir.” He hesitates, shuddering, then manages, “But you're right, I don't think- Don't think the Commander would.” He shivers again, shoulders hunching up towards his ears.

Echo frowns, shifts his weight off his prosthetic leg. “Naas, you should try meditating like General Kenobi showed you.”

“I did. It doesn't help, sir.”

“You only tried for a few minutes,” Alpha points out, and Echo winces and shrugs.

“Hurts.”

“Please keep trying, Naas,” Echo says. “Remember the General said it would help.”

Naas nods, and Alpha shifts his weight from foot to foot with a sigh, eyes worried. “Even if she's innocent, the Captain and Jesse… They just went with her, right? So they're gonna be- Well, they're gonna be in trouble.”

Probably. Unless General Skywalker ordered them to go with her, but it doesn't seem like he did. Echo's worried about Rex, about this decision to go after Commamder Tano. Not that he thinks it was the wrong one, just… It's dangerous, all of this.

All of a sudden, the barracks doors hiss open, and six members of the Coruscant Guard march in, followed by a lower-ranking officer who looks around and says, sharply, “Who's in charge here?”

Echo looks at Je'kai, nods, and the two of them make their way through the men to stand in front of the small squad. “What do you need?” Echo asks, politely but short. He sort of shares the opinion of many of his brothers, that the Corsucant Guard have been here on this planet too long for their own good, and no longer understand their  _ vode  _ very well.

“Chancellor Palpatine wants to speak with the clone trooper that goes by Naas,” the officer says, probably a captain, and Echo  _ stares. _

“I'm sorry, the  _ Chancellor  _ wants to talk to Naas?” Echo blinks, crosses his arms. Somehow he doesn't feel too good about that. “Why?”

“The Chancellor has heard that Naas was friends with Commander Tano, and wants to discuss the recent events with him. He thinks Naas may be able to help him understand what's going on. If any others of you think you may be able to contribute, he would also like to discuss this with them.”

Echo frowns and looks back at Naas, shaking and holding his cat (against regulations, but then it's such a small thing anyway), then over at Je'kai. “Give us a moment, would you?” he asks the Guard, and pulls Je'kai to one side. “I'm… not sure about this.” It's  _ the Chancellor,  _ but Naas is so vulnerable and sending him with shocktroopers to talk to the Chancellor alone - he's afraid of Jedi, still, surely this would be even worse?

“Lieutenant Echo,” Je'kai says, with a hint of impatience, suppressed, “This is the  _ Supreme Chancellor  _ of the Republic. We can't question his orders.”

Shit, but Je'kai's right. It's just that Rex and General Kenobi and Echo's Jedi have been being so careful with Naas and now everything has gotten so much worse, so sending him with shocktroopers seems like such a bad idea.

“Fine.” Echo sighs, heavily, and steps back over to the captain. “Alright, he'll go, of course, just- Please be careful of my  _ vod,  _ this has all been hard on him.”

“Sure.” The captain nods, deferentially, so Echo turns around.

“Naas, I'm gonna need you to go with the troopers here. Chancellor Palpatine wants to talk to you.”

Naas blanches, drops Orikih, and looks to Je'kai, who nods. Then he tries to straighten his shoulders and marches over, except Echo recognizes the terrified look in his eyes. “You'll just be talking to him, Naas,” Echo says, gently. “It's okay.”

Naas nods, and the captain touches his shoulder briefly before the little squad falls in around Naas and they leave the barracks.

Echo shakes his head, anxious, and goes to sit down on his bunk. He can't help but feel like he did the wrong thing.

He wishes Rex were here.

~~~

Sheev Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, stands alone in one of the small offices along one edge of the barracks, arms behind his back, watching the thunderstorm rage outside the window. 

Everything is going exactly as planned.

This situation is partially outside of his control, although he was able to nudge at the young Miralan’s thoughts, but she would make a good apprentice, if he could mold her to his own purposes. The clarity and logic of her thinking, even as she cleverly places the blame on her best friend, who would never think to suspect her--it is masterfully done, and Palpatine has always appreciated true mastery. In the arts, in the sciences, in the Force--it is all the same to him.

Mastery should be rewarded, after all.

When his guard brings in the clone, Naas, the Ustura--though the Jedi have tried to keep this all very quiet and internal, he has  _ connections, _ he knows what is going on within the Temple’s walls (he sees  _ everything)-- _ Palpatine schools his expression into one of grandfatherly concern, turns from the window to smile encouragingly at the clone. He will have to go carefully with this one, but it will be a good backup plan. If he can undo the Jedi’s work with Naas, he will have one last desperate option, if all else fails: to trigger the Force storm, to level half of Coruscant and the Jedi Temple and all Jedi within it, to lay the blame at the Jedi’s feet. Despite the fact that there will be many Jedi not within the Temple at that time, the outrage of the people will be more than enough to send them into hiding.

It is as neat and tidy a thing as he can accomplish, without his chips.

And  _ damn _ that Captain and  _ damn _ Tano and whoever else was behind that.

“Good evening, Naas,” he says, warmly. “You don’t have to worry--you aren’t in trouble. I just want to ask you a few questions, about your Commander Tano. Is that alright with you?”

The clone snaps to attention, wearily and warily both, eyes darting back and forth. “Yes, sir,” he says, and there is more distrust there than Palpatine would have hoped, but he can still work with this.

“I hope you can shed some light on this tricky situation, given your friendship with Padawan Tano,” Palpatine says, takes a step forward. “Did she give you any  _ signs _ that this… event was planned?” Of course she didn’t, this is a quite thorough set-up, but he doesn’t want the  _ clone _ to know that. Especially not a clone with such…  _ potential. _

“No, sir,” Naas says, quietly, and then he hesitates, and Palpatine makes a sort of  _ go on _ gesture at him. “I don’t--sir, I don’t think she did this.”

“An admirable sentiment, Naas--your loyalty to your friend and Commander is something to be praised. Unfortunately,” and he sighs as though this pains him greatly, “all the evidence points to her being the culprit. It is a shame, really; she is one of the brightest Jedi I know, a pleasure to be around. I never expected her to resort to  _ murder.” _ He shakes his head. “A shame, indeed. Forgive me, Naas, I am old and my mind tends to wander--I should have asked from the beginning. Are you and your men handling this tragedy alright?”

“She didn’t murder them, I don’t--” and Naas cuts off, like he’s searching for better words, before shaking his head and shrugging, looking down.

“Of course, my apologies.” Palpatine smiles again, lets out a sigh. “Your faith in Padawan Tano is quite touching, young one. I am glad she has such good friends among her men. I hope, for your sake, that this matter is resolved quickly and without further bloodshed.”

The clone takes a careful step forward, asks, “Sir, can you--can you help her somehow?”

And there is something to be said for his bravery, Palpatine thinks, but even so. “I am afraid not, Naas,” he says, gently, sorrowful. “Whether guilty or not, she has resisted arrest and is on the run, and she will need to stand trial for her crimes. Supreme Chancellor I may be, but my power has limits, and I can no more step outside those bounds than you can disobey orders. I am sorry, but her fate is in the hands of Admiral Lareen and the Judiciary, now.”

“Oh,” Naas says, small, shoulders slumping, and a lesser man would feel pity or sorrow, but Palpatine is not a lesser man. “I understand. Sorry, sir.”

“It’s quite alright,” Palpatine soothes, sets a gentle hand on the clone’s pauldron, the one painted with a tumbling loth-cat with bright blue eyes. “Unless you have any further questions, you may go.”

“Sir,” Naas asks, fidgeting, although he feels more relaxed--Palpatine leaves his hand where it’s at, smiles encouragingly, “if they’re--if she’s caught, and it--and they say it’s her fault, what happens?”

“That will depend on what the jury decides, but it is possible…” Palpatine hesitates, a good pause for effect, smoothes his face into tired concern. “It is possible that she will be condemned and sentenced to death for her crimes. An attack on the Jedi Temple is not one the Republic can take lightly, I’m afraid.”

The clone freezes for a moment, then shrugs his hand off, says, fast, “No, they can’t, I  _ know _ she didn’t, she--” and then he stops, shakes his head,  _ hard. _ “I’m so sorry, sir, never mind.”

“No, go ahead,” Palpatine says, soft as he can make his voice. “You can trust me, Naas--what’s said in this room stays here. I won’t tell anyone anything you don’t want me to.” He pauses, deliberately, before adding, “If you know something that could help clear her name…”

Naas hesitates. Twists his fingers together, and then he says, cautiously, “You’re sure it’s okay, sir?”

Solemnly, Palpatine says, “I give you my word as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.”

Naas gets very serious, then. “Well, sir, I’m--Force-sensitive,” and he hesitates--Palpatine nods a little, open, “so I know her pretty well, and I know what she feels like, and she didn’t feel--wrong, the whole time. Just worried, and upset at the bombing. She’s not--I would know.”

Palpatine nods, gravely. “Thank you for trusting me, Naas. It means a great deal to me. Very well, Naas--I believe you are telling the truth. It is a difficult thing, but I swear to you I will do what is in my power to keep Padawan Tano from the worst sentence, if she is found guilty.” He pauses, adds, “She is lucky to have a friend like you.”

“Thank you, sir,” he says, looks down at his feet.

Palpatine places a hand on his pauldron again, says, “If you ever need anything, Naas, you can come to me, and I will help as I am able.” He lets that sink in for a moment, weighted and serious. “I should probably let you get back before the rest of your battalion starts to worry, don’t you agree?”

“I--yes, sir,” the clone says, nodding, and Palpatine smiles, gently steers him to the door.

“You did well, Naas,” he says, warmly, and then he steps back, lets Naas leave.

That went  _ far _ better than he had expected. The clone  _ willingly _ revealed his sensitivity, seems to trust him. He  _ did _ have to promise to attempt to save Tano, but if worst comes to worst, he can simply tell the clone that he was unable to prevent a death sentence from being enacted.

Good, this is good.

Everything is transpiring exactly as he has planned.

~~~

Naas does not know what to think. Mostly, he thinks he wants to go back to his bunk and hold Orikih and try to manage all the Force in his head and wait for Rex to get back. Things are better, he thinks, when Rex is here.

Maybe better when Commander Tano is here, too.

The  _ Supreme Chancellor  _ wanted to talk to  _ him. _ He thinks he did good? He doesn’t know, he tried. Je’kai and Brii and Echo come up to him when he walks back into the barracks, and they all look worried. Naas calls for Orikih, who comes scrambling over so he can pick her up. She’s starting to grow into her ears.

“What did he want,  _ vod?”  _ Brii asks, and Naas shrugs.

“He was asking about, um, Commander Tano. If I expected her to- If I thought this was going to happen.” Which of  _ course  _ he didn’t, because Commander Tano didn’t do  _ anything. _ Except then she ran, and took the Captain with her, so now nobody’s here anymore and he’s not sure what the Generals think about the whole thing.

He’s worried about Ani. He felt angry and scared.

Naas doesn’t like  _ any of this. _

“What did you tell him?” Je’kai asks him, almost sharply. He has not felt good for a while. Naas has meant to talk to him but the Force  _ hurts  _ today, and ever since they got here. He thinks Je’kai thinks Commander Tano was the one who blew up the Temple, which isn’t right.

“I said-” He stops, because he suddenly thinks Je’kai will tell him he said the wrong thing. But he did his best. “I said she didn’t do it. I think he believes me.”

Je’kai gives him a  _ look. _ “What if she  _ did  _ do it, Naas?”

“She  _ didn’t,”  _ Naas insists, and Echo is nodding, because Echo agrees with him. So there.

“She wouldn’t,” Echo says.

So. Naas is right.

The Force says so too.

“I told him so, I said she wouldn’t, and he said they might- If they think she did it they might  _ kill her,  _ except he promised he’d try not to let them. He said he believed me. So she’ll be  _ fine.” _ Probably. He’s sure. He thinks.

The Force is not telling him, the Force just hurts.

“I wish I could believe you,” Je’kai says, shaking his head at him, and Naas feels unsure of himself for a minute. “Hopefully he’ll leave you alone now,  _ vod’ika.” _

The Chancellor probably will. Naas doesn’t think the Chancellor usually has time for clones, nobody does, but he said if Naas needed help- but then, Naas would rather talk to Rex. That makes a  _ lot  _ more sense than the Chancellor. For a lot of reasons.

The Force is so  _ loud,  _ he wants it to  _ be quiet  _ and the meditating isn’t working, it never works when things are  _ really  _ bad. He should ask General Kenobi about that. So that he doesn’t feel so sick when there’s a battle, or someone dies, or  _ this,  _ whatever this is.

But he  _ knows, knows, knows  _ that Commander Tano didn’t kill anybody, and he  _ knows  _ something is wrong, and he  _ knows  _ the Chancellor promised to try to help her. So that is what is happening, right now. And he  _ hurts.  _ So he is going to sit with Orikih and maybe not meditate, maybe he’ll just try to go to sleep and not think about it for a bit and maybe they’ll have found the Commander when he wakes up and it’ll be better.

He think Je’kai might be upset with him, and Brii feels worried.

He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t. He almost thinks he wants the  _ Jedi  _ back. At least things were starting to make sense, before. Now they don’t. He doesn’t know. Except for some things. So he goes and sits down by himself on his bunk and holds Orikih and looks at his pauldron that Brii painted, because it makes him feel better.

This’ll be better soon, he thinks. Hopes. Because right now it’s just  _ worse. _

He wants his friends back.

~~~

Cody wakes up slowly, head throbbing and a bad taste in his mouth, something hard and lumpy and decidedly  _ not comfortable _ beneath him.

What the hells…?

He pulls his bucket off, rubs at his eyes, sits up--finds that the lumpy thing was a  _ vod, _ one of the shocktroopers, and  _ aw shit, Rex, _ karking  _ hells, _ he did  _ not. _

“Rex,” he mutters, under his breath, “you karking  _ shabuir.” _

His  _ ori’vod _ karking  _ stunned him. _

“So you’re gonna add kriffing insubordination and assaulting a superior officer to your list of crimes,” he continues, shoving himself to his feet and starting to pace, looking at the  _ mess _ that is his squad. A part of him is morbidly amused by the fact that it only took two Force-users and two of his  _ vode _ in the 501st, all without weapons, to take down an entire squad of fourteen shocktroopers--the rest of him is  _ kriffing pissed. _

Commander Tano made him a  _ promise. _ She said she  _ understood _ what it meant, when Rex gave her armor. She swore on her  _ kriffing life _ that she’d keep him safe.

Cody had told her, had warned her, that he would not lose his  _ ori’vod _ because of her.

That is what is happening, now.

No more.

Karking  _ hells. _

He paces, counts the seven broad strides between one side of the alley and the other, waiting for the shocktroopers to regain consciousness--he’ll have to rendezvous with General Kenobi and figure out a new plan of attack.

And maybe he’ll have a chance to get back at that hairless harpy during all this.

At least she didn’t kill his  _ vode _ this time, he muses, eyeing the blasters cut in half and littering the ground. Those could just as easily be his brothers.

Little gods  _ damn it,  _ Rex, why’d you have to do this?

(The worst part of it all is that Cody of  _ course _ knows exactly why. His  _ ori’vod’s cyare _ is in danger--hells, Cody may be  _ beyond furious _ at her, but he  _ knows _ she’s innocent. She wouldn’t kill brothers, of that he’s certain. But  _ little gods, _ he hates that Rex is so--he loves his  _ ori’vod, _ he does, but sometimes.)

It takes a few minutes for his squad to wake up, and by that point, Cody has lost count of how many times he’s paced the alley. He was trying to count, because the numbers help, but he’s too  _ angry _ now, he can’t keep things straight. He’s not sure who he’s  _ more _ pissed at: Rex, for being a  _ dumbass, _ or Commander Tano, for being the  _ reason _ his  _ ori’vod’s _ a dumbass.

Both, probably.

Kark it all, she was supposed to  _ protect _ Rex, not drag him into this mess.

“Sir,” one of the shocktroopers says, “What do we do now, sir?”

“We have to rendezvous with Kenobi,” he growls, jams his bucket back on his head, adjusts his wristcomm to his General’s frequency. “General Kenobi, come in.”

_ “What is it, Cody? Have you found them?” _

“Oh, yeah, we karking found them, alright,” he snarls, strides between his squad and directs them to follow him in the vague direction of another ventilation shaft. “Rex  _ shot me. _ With a stunner, but still.”

_ “I see,” _ Kenobi says, sounds--surprised.  _ “I take it you were unable to subdue them, then.” _

“Got it in one, sir.” And he’s still  _ pissed _ about that. “They disobeyed direct orders to stand down and then fought. The witch is with them, and so’s Jesse.”

_ “Ventress? Interesting, I’ll have to talk to Anakin about this development. What level are you on?” _

“1312, corner of 12th and G right now,” Cody says, “but we’re making our way to the nearest vent shaft. Could use a pickup.”

_ “Any wounded?” _

“No, sir. Minor bruising only. They were careful.” That’s the  _ one good thing _ about all of this.

_ “Copy that. I’ll have the transports pick you up on the nearest landing platform and we’ll discuss what to do next.” _

Cody cuts off the comm, shaking his head and extending his stride, hands clenched into tight fists. His gods-damned  _ ori’vod shot him. Ori’vode _ don’t just  _ shoot each other, _ that’s not--

He thinks, right now, he might actually hate Commander Tano, for this.

~~~

Fives wishes he could do what Jesse has done and go join his Captain and Commander, but his General needs him too. So here he is, in a transport, helmet under his arm and hanging onto the handholds, eyeing his little squad of shocktroopers dubiously. The Guard thinks very highly of itself, but almost none of the Coruscant Guard has seen real war, has proved themselves the same way Fives and his  _ vode  _ have. He has to wonder whether any of them even know what it’s like to lose a brother.

They probably do now.

General Skywalker doesn’t look good, and Fives can’t even really pinpoint what he thinks he’s feeling, only that he knows he needs to help him.

“Do we have any leads, sir?” he asks, gets a terse shake of the head from Skywalker.

“Not really. I haven’t heard anything from anyone.” Skywalker had quietly told him about his conversation with Commander Tano, on their way to the transport, so that had made Fives feel better about all this. Still, he’s worried.

There’s a ping, General Skywalker’s wristcomm, and when he connects it, it’s General Kenobi.  _ “Anakin, come in.” _

“Master,” General Skywalker says, sounds relieved, and Fives smiles just a bit. “Have you found them?”

_ “In a manner of speaking,”  _ which isn’t exactly promising.  _ “Cody and his squad found them on level 1312 but I’m afraid they got away.” _

Skywalker swears, rubs his face. “Did he see which way they went?”

There’s a pause.  _ “No. He and his men were apparently incapacitated.” _

Well, great. Fives sighs. He knows they aren’t necessarily trying to catch them, now, but it’s still their assignment and it would be better if they knew where Rex and Commander Tano were.

_ “You should also know, Anakin - they’re apparently traveling with Ventress, and all of them disobeyed a direct order from Cody.” _

“I knew about Ventress,” Skywalker snaps. Not so much the rest; that’s not good. Fives doesn’t know what to think. His Captain and his  _ vod  _ \- when he was encouraging Rex to stand against Krell, he wasn’t expecting this sort of thing to become a  _ pattern. _

_ “How long have they been traveling with  _ **_Ventress?”_ ** Kenobi demands, and Skywalker shrugs.

“Since I spoke to her before, maybe before that. I don’t know.”

Really. Ventress. Not really their smartest move, probably. Fives trusts Commander Tano’s judgement, he always has, but this is a little… No, this is a  _ lot  _ risky. Everything about this. Fives just wants them to be alright and get this figured out before it gets any worse, or they do anything else stupid. Like  _ apparently  _ disobey direct orders and “incapacitate” an entire squad of the military police.

Karking hells, what a day.

_ “I see. We’ve regrouped, and I believe I’ll have my squad search levels 1312 and 1313.” _

Because maybe Rex and Commander Tano and Jesse haven’t gotten far - somewhat unlucky, but it depends on their plan. Fives thinks they wouldn’t try to cover too much ground, with a former Sith and a rogue Jedi and two clones, they would be a conspicuous group. So at least they won’t have to cover too much ground with their search, if they move fast enough.

Skywalker nods. “We can check level 1314, at least. Have you heard from Master Plo?”

_ “I just spoke to him. We have them searching the levels below 1312.” _

“Okay. Keep me updated, Master.”

_ “Of course.” _

Fives looks down at the floor of the transport, resting his hand on his blaster. He believes Commander Tano can prove she’s innocent, and he thinks his Jedi can make sure his brothers don’t take the fall for this. He just doesn’t like the uncertainty, not knowing who’s working against them or where his Commander is or what they can do to help. He’d much rather have something certain to shoot at, not this flailing in the dark.

It’ll be better once they know what’s going on. Hopefully Commander Tano found  _ something,  _ or this is going to be a long, long few days (or, worse, longer, but he won’t insult their intelligence that much). Hells, he almost can’t wait for a proper fight.

~~~

Anakin shifts his weight onto one foot, sighing and rubbing at his forehead. He’d said help the best he could, and he’d  _ meant _ that, but it’s… he trusts Ahsoka, but what is she  _ thinking? _

_ Incapacitating _ Cody and a squad isn’t something the Judiciary and the GAR will just  _ wave off. _ Nor is insubordination, that’s not something he can protect her from--he can protect Rex and Jesse, sure, by claiming this was all on his orders, but Ahsoka’s on her own for this.

_ Shavit, _ he wishes she’d just come back.

“Get us on the ground on level 1314, Dig,” he calls to the transport pilot, gets a  _ yes sir _ over internal comms, and the transport starts to descend. He tightens his hand on the overhead straps, braces himself, watching through the open sides of the transport as they approach a landing platform.

This is all  _ so _ dangerous.

The transport comes to a stop hovering a few meters above the platform, and Anakin jumps out, Fives next to him, the Guard behind them, a few probes hovering above his head. The droids wait just a moment before taking off, and Anakin waves to the Guard behind him, starts for the actual inner workings of the level itself. “Fan out. Standard search patterns, weapons locked on stun. We are  _ not _ hurting any of them.”

“What about Ventress?” Fives asks, and Anakin grits his teeth, sighs.

“Even Ventress.”

“Copy that, sir,” one of the shocktroopers says, and Anakin ducks past a few suspicious-looking sentients clustered together and giving him poorly-disguised glares.

This just keeps getting worse and worse.


	5. Chapter 5

Ventress takes them quickly up a series of stairs and catwalks and girders (and just generally precarious, slightly suspicious pathways) through level 1314 and to level 1315. There aren’t many people around, anymore - the military police are around, so of course everyone down here has gone into hiding. It does help them out, some.

They cut down just a few main streets, out into a wide, open space where a warehouse, several floors high, dilapidated, lit red and yellow with low-power lighting and hazard lights, rises up in front of them. The place looks like it’s on fire, although it being a  _ munitions  _ warehouse, an actual fire would be a little more… dramatic.

“There it is,” Ventress says, seriously. “That’s where you’re supposed to find this clue.”

“Wonderful,” Jesse mutters.

They all approach it, Rex automatically being a bit wary; everything’s fairly still, if not so quiet, but he doesn’t feel good about this. Ahsoka steps a bit ahead of them, eyes flicking over the terrain and the warehouse itself, like she’s trying to decide the best way to get in  _ and  _ safely back out.

“I’ve done my part of the bargain,” Ventress says, which is true, Rex has to admit. She didn’t hurt his  _ vode  _ (anymore than he did, anyway), and she got them safely where Barriss told them they could find answers. Hells, he thinks Ventress wasn’t… the worst, this time around. “Which means you’re on your own from here. But don’t forget, you have to speak on my behalf now, and you owe me a favor.” She steps up close to Ahsoka, hesitates, then continues walking, turning to give her a slightly warning look. “That was the deal.” She holds out Ahsoka’s sabers in one hand, and ‘Soka takes them, frowning.

Rex and Jesse both step forward, because they need their own blasters back; Ventress snorts, tosses them on the ground.

“Agreed,” Ahsoka says. “Thanks for getting us this far, at least,” and she makes a slight face. “I have to admit, I  _ never  _ saw us doing  _ anything  _ together,  _ ever.” _

No kidding. Rex still can’t believe  _ this  _ is his life at the moment. Jesse says  _ haar’chak,  _ very quietly.

Ventress smiles, just a little, wryly, and turns away. “These are strange times.”

That, at least, is true.

And she walks away, without another word, and Rex frowns. He doesn’t know what he expected, but certainly not any of this.

“Well, sir,” Jesse says, slowly, “I guess we better go have a look around.”

Ahsoka nods, clipping her sabers to her belt, and Rex jams his own blasters in their holsters where they belong, and then they walk, slow and careful, into the warehouse.

It's huge, low-ceilinged, smells like smoke and chemicals and grease, and what few windows there are are cracked. There are bins and boxes stacked everywhere, and Rex realizes, with a sinking feeling, that with this many floors and this much to look for with no idea what they need. Jesse sums it up: “What the hell are we even looking for?”

Rex checks the label of a nearby box, sighs, and they start looking around. He assumes they'll know proof if they find it, but right now they've got nothing to go on.

Still, they're a step closer to proving Ahsoka didn't bomb the Temple, a step closer to keeping her safe, which will make it okay that he stunned Cody. He hopes.

~~~

Ahsoka frowns, scanning the area for something, anything that could help in proving her innocence. There has to be  _ something _ here, or else Barriss wouldn’t have suggested it as a lead; she’ll find it soon enough.

There’s a rustle of sound, and Ahsoka frowns, holds up a hand, knows Jesse and Rex are paying attention. Everything goes quiet, and she reaches out into the Force, feels a vaguely-familiar Force-signature approaching, and she frowns again, shakes her head. “Ventress? I thought we agreed to part ways.”

It doesn’t quite feel like Ventress.

The other person doesn’t speak, and there’s nothing to tell her where they’re at--until there’s a humming and a pair of red sabers ignite inches from her head. Ahsoka swears, ducks and rolls out of the way, ignites her own sabers, shouts, “Rex, Jesse, take cover!”

The person--woman, actually--is Dark and  _ furious, _ doesn’t feel like Ventress but fights like her, has her mask and sabers (wrong clothes, Ahsoka notes, rolling behind a crate). What the  _ kriff? _

The Force  _ slams _ into her, a wave of raw power, accompanied by a few crates, and Ahsoka coughs and rolls out of the way, gets back to her feet, meets Ventress (or whoever this is) head-on, sabers hissing--she doesn’t hold the blade lock for long, disengages, and Ahsoka lunges forward, sabers humming loud and violent in her montrals, only to overreach and get a boot slammed into her chin for her effort. She crashes to the ground, swearing under her breath, hears Jesse shouting wordlessly-- _ shit, _ no, she needs to get back up  _ now _ (her head’s already spinning and she doesn’t remember Ventress knowing her weaknesses this well, that’s not good, doesn’t bode well).

Someone’s firing a blaster and that helps Ahsoka orient herself, jump over a stack of crates and land in front of Ventress, their sabers meeting in a clash of sparks. It’s Rex who’s firing fast and accurate, and she shakes her head at him, quickly, as one of his bolts skims past Ventress’s head and nearly hits  _ her. _

That’s  _ not gonna work. _

When Ventress throws the Force at her again, this time Ahsoka’s ready; she counters, still skids back a few feet, has to suck in a few rough, sharp breaths, and then Ventress is disengaging, lunging back at Jesse and Rex again, who’ve taken cover behind another stack of boxes. Ahsoka grits her teeth, grabs onto the Force and  _ throws _ Ventress off-balance, but the Sith is somehow  _ prepared, _ twists with the motion and lands on one foot, red sabers blazing, and Ahsoka imagines she’s snarling.

_ Force, _ this is--so much.

But at least she’s distracted from her men.

Ventress lunges again, and it’s one, two, three, block and parry and twist out of the way, a saber sears across the fabric of Ahsoka’s cloak and burns her skin but it’s minor so she makes it  _ not matter, _ it can’t matter, and she kicks out one leg, sweeps Ventress’ feet out from underneath her--the Sith curls her fingers into a claw and  _ jerks _ and there’s an invisible grip wrapping around her ankle like durasteel, ripping her off her feet. Ventress jumps back to her feet and in the same motion  _ flicks _ her wrist, and Ahsoka has just enough time to brace herself before everything goes  _ white _ with pain and she can’t  _ breathe. _

There are boxes tumbling down on top of her, and Ahsoka can’t even grab onto the Force to shield herself, can do nothing more than curl up in a ball and cover her head as the rough wood hits. There’s a roar of sound and a wave of heat, something exploding probably, shit, that’s gonna bring the shocktroopers down on their heads, but she has to focus on the spots in her eyes, blinking them away. Has to take a second to catch her breath before she can claw her way out of the pile, focus in on Rex backing up towards a precarious wooden catwalk, Ventress advancing, low and prowling, like a dire-cat, Jesse struggling to his feet some distance away.

Not good. At  _ all. _

She’s not going to make it over there in time to get her sabers between Ventress and Rex, so--

So.

Ahsoka leaves her sabers on her belt, takes a deep breath, grabs onto the Force and  _ leaps, _ hits Ventress in the back and tackles her off the catwalk. Ventress slams into the durasteel floor below first, hard enough to stun, sabers clattering out of her hands, and Ahsoka reaches up and grabs the mask, jerks it off her head.

The first thing she sees is  _ green, _ green and small dark-diamond tattoos across cheeks, and Ahsoka rubs at her eyes, reels back, can’t breathe,  _ no, _ that can’t be true, it can’t be--she chokes the name out, shaking her head  _ hard. _

_ “Barriss?” _

~~~

When Ahsoka tackles Ventress off the catwalk, Rex doesn’t wait for Jesse or to see what happens when they land, just holsters one blaster and vaults over the railing, lands in a low, settled crouch, the impact jarring his knees and making him catch himself with his free hand. He shoves himself immediately upright, strides over to Ahsoka as she tosses Ventress’ mask to one side. She’s breathing hard, and Rex is worried about her, but for the moment he pushes that aside and points his blaster at-

_ “Barriss?” _

Rex stops, shifts to one side so he can look over Ahsoka’s shoulder, and sure enough, it’s her  _ friend,  _ the girl he’d helped pull out of the wreckage of a demolished temple on Geonosis, who Ahsoka trusted to call and tell her location to. Ahsoka seems shocked, so Rex shifts his aim past Ahsoka’s arm, switches his blaster to stun, and fires. Barriss makes a little noise when the stun blast hits her, and then she goes limp.

Jesse jumps down behind Rex with the thud of boots on durasteel, and Rex holsters his other blaster.

Everything suddenly makes a  _ lot  _ more sense.

Ahsoka straightens, partly, and fumbles back from Barriss, catches her weight on one of the boxes around them, and lowers herself to sit on the ground, against the box.

“Jesse, you better restrain her,” Rex says, shortly, and walks over to crouch down by Ahsoka. Jesse, swearing, does as he’s ordered.

He can hear voices approaching, and boots, and shouting, but he’s not worried about that at this point. He just fits his arm around Ahsoka’s shoulders, pulls her close to him and sighs. She’s shaking a bit, eyes wet.

“Well,” Rex says, exhaling long and slow. “I guess you did it, sir. Sorry it’s shitty.”

The footsteps and voices are in the warehouse now. The fallout from this is going to be complicated.

“She’s my  _ best friend,  _ Rex, I can’t-” Ahsoka shakes her head, voice catching, choked with tears, and Jesse looks over at them with a tight-lipped frown. “How  _ could _ she?  _ Why,  _ I don’t-”

“I know, I’m sorry.” Rex squeezes her shoulder, and kisses her cheek lightly. “I don’t know why, ‘Soka.”

Anakin and Fives come running from the direction they’re both facing, then, with the Guard behind them, and Anakin throws up a hand to stop them, taking in the scene with quick eyes and a scowl. Fives actually smiles, just a little, salutes vaguely at them, and Rex eases himself to his feet, giving Ahsoka a hand up too.

That’s when General Kenobi and  _ Cody  _ (shit, he’s got his helmet off and he’s glowering like a krayt dragon) come from the opposite direction with their squad, and Kenobi stops them too and marches the rest of the over to them, focusing on the boxes around them. Rex avoids looking at Cody; his  _ ori’vod  _ looks like he has some  _ very  _ sharp things to say.

Anakin comes over to them with Fives slightly behind him, looks down at Barriss and then at Ahsoka, who’s trying to stifle heavy sobs, and puts a hand on her shoulder to pull her into a tight hug. That was obviously a good decision, because Ahsoka makes a small sound and stops trying to control the crying. “It was  _ her,”  _ Ahsoka says, muffled, and Anakin rubs her back, nodding.

“These are the same nanodroids found at the explosion site,” General Kenobi volunteers, steady but careful, and Rex looks at the boxes around them, the labels, and understands.

“She told me to come here,” Ahsoka explains, and Anakin nods again.

“I see.” General Kenobi rubs his chin, sighing, and makes a signal at some of his troopers to pick Barriss up.

“And then she attacked me but pretended to be Ventress.”

Which was just  _ great. _ Rex’s back aches from being thrown back and into a stack of boxes, at one point. Ventress- Barriss had been very focused on he and Jesse, a few times, and that still gives him an awful, horrified feeling in his stomach. He and his  _ vode  _ can’t do much at all against sabers, and experience has only slightly improved that.

Rex thinks Ahsoka should just stop trying to talk until she’s finished crying, so he explains, briefly, “We parted ways with Ventress when she showed us where this warehouse was. We thought she came back, but apparently Commander Offee somehow took her mask and sabers.” He shrugs a bit, glances at Cody and then quickly back down at the ground. “We thought it was Ventress until a bit ago, when Ahsoka took her mask off.”

General Kenobi nods, understanding, and opens his comm frequency, says something quietly to “Master Plo.”

Anakin leans back a bit from Ahsoka, although since she’s still crying a bit, he doesn’t let go of her. “Rex, Jesse, thank you for following my orders and watching her back.”

Rex hesitates, glances at Jesse, then says, “Yes, sir. It wasn’t a problem.”

“We better go back.” Anakin sighs. “We have a lot to figure out.”

They do. Rex has to find a way to get his armor back. For now, though, he can’t, so he nods firmly and wraps his hand around his right bracer, feels the texture of the stolen leather over the safety over his armor.

~~~

Ahsoka swallows hard, pulls away from Anakin, wiping at her eyes, reaches for Rex’s hand automatically, feels him thread his fingers through hers and squeeze. That helps, some, helps her stay on her feet to numbly follow behind the shocktroopers carrying Barriss, unconscious with her arms cuffed behind her back, behind Cody and Obi-Wan. Jesse, Fives, and Anakin walk behind her and Rex, watching their six, which--helps.

It’s a quiet walk through the level back to the transports, and Ahsoka keeps her eyes down, tightens her hold on Rex’s hand until it’s almost enough, until it’s an anchor keeping her focused, keeping her from dissolving completely. She just has to hold herself together for a little while longer, now. Just a little longer.

There’s two transports set down on the landing platform, and the shocktroopers step into one, Obi-Wan and Anakin and Cody and Fives going over to the other. Jesse follows Fives, the two of them talking in a low voice in Mando’a--she doesn’t care enough to try and translate it right now.

Cody’s gotten Barriss from the shocktroopers, and he steps into the back of the transport, gets her down on her knees and holds her upright with one hand tight on her shoulder. He’s  _ furious, _ she can tell, so she avoids his eyes and shifts a little closer to Rex as they climb into the transport. Reaches one hand up and grabs onto the straps, shaking her head.

“I thought…” and she stops, shaking her head again, harder, emphatic. “I thought I could--if I could trust anyone, it’d be Barriss,” she whispers, not sure who she’s even talking to anymore, just cold and small. “I didn’t think--I don’t  _ understand.” _

“I know,” Rex says quietly. “I’m sorry.” He soothes a hand up and down her back, and she leans into him, closes her eyes.

“I just want this all to be  _ over,” _ she chokes out, lets go of his hand so she can wrap that arm around him, tuck her head against the soft leather over his heart. That helps, some, not as much as she’d hoped, but some. “I want to go home, I don’t--I  _ hate this, _ Rex.”

Rex sighs, long and slow and low. “Me too.”

“It’s gonna be okay, Snips,” Anakin says, and she pulls her head back enough to look at him. “We’ll figure this all out. The Council won’t let the GAR throw you to the loth-wolves.”

She nods once, closes her eyes again, tightens her arm around Rex. This is all just a  _ nightmare. _

The ride back to the Republic base is long and quiet and awkward, but Ahsoka doesn’t say much, just lets Anakin talk about how they’ll probably have to let the GAR lock them up for a bit, until they can figure out what exactly is going to happen. Fair enough, she thinks,  probably. She stole and messed with Republic property and disobeyed orders and assaulted a superior officer--all of that is going to be a problem, because just because she was trying to avoid getting in trouble for something she  _ didn’t _ do doesn’t excuse the crimes she  _ did _ commit.

She has a feeling the Jedi are going to have to fight with the GAR to figure all this out. She hopes the Jedi win.

A squad of shocktroopers, led by Fox, marches out to greet them when the transports land; she notes Cody picking Barriss up, carrying her over to Fox, talking quietly to him, figures they’re probably talking about the fact that it’s really  _ not _ Ahsoka who killed the clones and Letta and organized the Temple bombing. Fox nods, says something else, Cody starts walking into the base, and Ahsoka just clings to Rex’s hand and lets the shocktroopers escort her and Rex and Jesse into the base, to a bigger cell with a real door. They lock them up and she’s just numb, cold, and she goes back to the bench at the back of the cell and sits down, tucking her knees up to her chest and staring at nothing in particular. 

She’s so  _ cold. _

How could Barriss do this? 

~~~

Rex is not exactly  _ surprised _ that all of this ended up with him in a jail cell.

He’s more  _ disappointed. _

This isn’t as bad as it could be, that’s certain, but what’s also certain is that he doesn’t want to be here anyway, and that whether he “received orders” from Anakin or not, he still shot a Marshall Commander.

He shot  _ Cody. _

It’s kriffed up on multiple levels.

Then there’s the fact that Ahsoka definitely didn’t receive any orders, and that even though they can prove it wasn’t her that bombed the Temple and murdered Letta and his  _ vode, _ she still broke other laws, and so he’s not sure what they’ll do about that.

With luck (which Rex doesn’t think they usually have), they’ll all get out of this with a couple slaps on the wrists, nothing worse. Considering the fact that the GAR has it out for her (and probably him, given he recently took over his whole battalion and arrested their acting general), he suspects they’ll have a bit of a fight to get this all sorted out.

Rex  _ wants  _ to pace, like Jesse is doing (like Jesse always does), but instead he sighs and goes to sit on the bench in the cell, by Ahsoka. She looks small, limbs drawn in, eyes a bit too wide, which he can tell means she’s trying not to cry.

“You did good, Ahsoka,” he says, quietly. “I know it didn’t- I know this is bad. But you did good.” He shifts a little, then exhales, slow, and puts an arm around her, tugging her against his side. Her breath catches a little, and before he quite realizes it she’s crying again.

“I  _ trusted her,”  _ she breathes, and Rex closes his eyes for a second. Jesse’s footsteps get faster. “She was my  _ friend.” _ She lifts one hand to grab the front of his jacket, leans further into his side, and he puts his other arm around her too.

“You remember how you joined our battalion on Christophsis?” Rex asks, thoughtfully. “In the middle of a campaign?”

“Yeah,” she says, quietly.

“Well, there was a trooper in Cody’s battalion, from Cody’s and my batch. Named Slick. He was a squadleader, always did a good job, cared more about his squad than just about anything. We were in the middle of a battle and got ambushed, and there was no way they could’ve known our plan except if they had someone in our command center, somehow. Cody and I figured out it had to be a trooper, and someone from Slick’s squad - we went to talk to them. Turned out Slick himself was the traitor.” Rex smiles, bitterly. “It wasn’t a very good day.” He leaves out Slick’s reasoning, and the fact that the clone was probably reconditioned. At  _ least. _ “It’s just… I guess what I mean is, ‘Soka, I trusted him like I trusted all my  _ vode  _ and we’d never… It was early in the war. That sort of thing didn’t happen. It hurt, and it didn’t feel right, for a while. But it got better, so I guess I’m saying it’s shitty and it’s not okay, but it- You have other people, too, and they won’t let you down.” Like Rex had had Cody, when Slick betrayed them, and so that made it better. Ahsoka has Anakin, and General Kenobi, and almost the whole battalion, so who needs Commander Offee anyway?

Of-kriffing-course Rex doesn’t say that.

“But if- if Barriss could, could do that… who else could?” Ahsoka asks, quietly, looking up at him. “How do I know who to trust?”

Rex huffs a little, rubs her shoulder soothingly. “I don’t really know sometimes, to be honest, sir. I just… I try my best to judge and hope I’m not wrong. But there are some people you just know, too - General Skywalker wouldn’t let you down. I wouldn’t.”

“The battalion won’t,” Jesse interjects, quickly, firm. “Those of us that know you, sir, you can trust us.”

Rex smiles a little. “Right.” He’d trust Torrent Company and, really, most of his battalion with  _ anything. _ There’s a reason he hasn’t been trying to hide his and Ahsoka’s… whatever it is, their not-exactly-regulation relationship, from the battalion. Because he trusts them, and vice versa.

“I don’t understand how she could just-” she shakes her head, and he sighs and kisses the tip of one of her montrals. “I’m sorry, I got you in trouble.”

“I got myself in trouble,” he says, seriously. “It’s okay.” He means that. It was his own decision to go after Ahsoka, so that’s his problem.

Before any of them can say anything else, there’s a sound of the cell’s pressured locks being released, and Rex tightens his grip on Ahsoka. When the door slides open, though, it just reveals Cody, helmetless, hands folded behind his back, his expression and posture neat and strict and perfectly blank except that Rex knows him too well to be fooled. Cody is angry, angry and worried, but Rex thinks he’s the only one besides General Kenobi who can recognize that. Well, and apparently Ahsoka has some idea of it, because she slumps a little and looks down.

Really, Rex isn’t feeling so good about looking Cody in the eyes either.

“How are things looking?” Rex asks, trying to be clinical.

“Hells if I know, yet,” Cody sighs. “This is a shitshow, if you haven’t noticed.”

Ahsoka flinches a little. “Sorry,” she mutters, hoarsely, still looking down.

Cody inclines his head, slightly, tense. “Not your fault, Commander.” He looks at Rex, though, and Rex knows he isn’t going to say the same thing to him. Sure enough, Cody switches to speaking Mando’a, flat.  _ “Why the hells did you do that?” _

Rex opens his mouth, stops, sighs and shakes his head.  _ “What’d you expect me to do?” _

_ “Not this!”  _ Cody snaps.  _ “Not-”  _ He pauses, controls himself with an evident effort.  _ “You didn’t think any of this through.” _

Rex scowls, although technically Cody’s right, he didn’t really plan any of this.  _ “I didn’t have to, Cody, I needed to help.” _

_ “You needed to shoot me, too, huh?”  _ Rex looks down, and over at Jesse, who’s stopped pacing and sort of scooted back towards the wall, looking extremely awkward. Rex just feels tired, suddenly.  _ “You decide to abandon what you were supposed to be doing to go after your sweetheart and team up with a  _ **_Sith_ ** _ and then you shoot me? Karking hells, Rex, there were better ways to do this.” _

Ahsoka looks up, quickly, interjects, “Don’t snap at him because of me.”

Rex shakes his head a little. This definitely isn’t her fault, and he wishes she wouldn’t think it is.

Cody looks at her, serious (making her look back down), and says, “I am not discussing this with you right now.”

Rex scowls, but before he can say anything, Ahsoka shrugs a little, flinching, and says, “Why not, we both know you’re just going to be mad at me because I kriffed up and didn’t  _ protect him  _ and he’s in trouble because of me, and I made you a promise.”

Sorry, what the  _ kriff? _

_ “Can you guys… sorry, sirs, but can you just… save it?”  _ Jesse asks, in Mando’a, rubbing the back of his neck.  _ “This is all shitty enough and I’d rather not know what you all are fighting about in your spare time.” _

A muscle jumps in Cody’s jaw, and he grits his teeth, but he says, shortly, “I said we are  _ not discussing this  _ right now.”

Rex doesn’t understand what _promise_ Ahsoka made Cody, and really he doesn’t need to because that’s not his business. What bothers him is the fact that they’re both being karking dumbasses again, apparently, and Ahsoka feels guilty and he’s fairly sure that Cody’s angry with her, but _he_ shot his _ori’vod_ and _he_ ran off with Ahsoka, both things very much under his own power, so really overall the only one who’s at fault for him being stupid is, strangely enough, _himself._

“Fine, yell at me later when we aren’t being  _ recorded.  _ Probably smarter anyway,” Ahsoka says, wearily and a little bitter. Rex thinks she should just leave Cody alone, it really mostly isn’t her fault he’s angry, but she’s definitely not making it better. She keeps talking, though, but Rex really isn’t surprised by that at this point. “Unless this cell’s surveillance  _ conveniently  _ doesn’t have audio either,  _ Lareen,”  _ she hisses, and Rex doesn’t find that  _ funny,  _ per se, but it’s just- He snorts, looks down, hears Cody swear under his breath.

_ “You could have commed me yourself, you know,”  _ Cody says, more tired, and Rex nods once.  _ “You had karking Fives tell me what happened. How the hells am I supposed to protect you when I don’t even know what’s going on?” _

_ “I was just trying to-” _

_ “You don’t need to explain. I get it.”  _ Cody pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing, and shakes his head.  _ “You didn’t have to risk that much, there were  _ **_other ways_ ** _ to do this that wouldn’t get you reconditioned.” _

Rex sighs.  _ “Well, what were they? I had to make a decision, Cody, I was doing my best.” _

_ “I know.”  _ Settling his arms back behind his back, professional, Cody half-turns, clearly ready to leave.  _ “Me too. And I wasn’t going to lose you over this, ori’vod.” _

_ “I’m sorry,”  _ Rex says, trying not to sound quite as guilty as he feels.

Cody sighs, heavily, and shakes his head. “I know. Just-” He stops. “We’ll talk more about this,  _ mir’osik.” _

Rex smiles, just a little bit, as Cody turns his back and paces out of the cell.

That was awful. But Cody doesn’t hate him, so all things considered it went pretty well, although he’s not sure Cody’s going to forgive him for this in a hurry, which is… only right. Because  _ ori’vode  _ don’t fight each other, don’t do things like he did. And he doesn’t regret it, he knows he did his best, but he wishes, all the same, that he hadn’t had to.

He sighs, looks down at Ahsoka, and, understanding why she looks so upset, sets his hand gentle on her back headtail and soothes slow up-and-down patterns there.

Everything’s going to work out now. It’ll just take a little time, is all.

~~~

Jesse gets released almost immediately, maybe an hour or so after Cody leaves. It’s only a couple more hours after  _ that _ that a few shocktroopers come and tell Rex he’s been cleared of all charges, escorting him out before he has time to do more than press a quick kiss to her forehead and squeeze her hand. And Ahsoka should feel glad they’ve been cleared, because that means they can go back to the battalion, who she  _ knows _ needs them, but a selfish part of her wishes Rex at least hadn’t been.

Because as soon as the cell door slides shut behind him, she’s alone.

Alone with her thoughts and her guilt and the memory of Barriss’ slack face emerging from Ventress’ helmet. Alone with Cody’s remembered anger and the way he’d snarled  _ cyar’ika _ out in the middle of a sentence (she’d deliberately avoided translating their conversation, but she couldn’t miss that word), the barely-controlled  _ rage _ she’d seen simmering under the surface when he’d said  _ we are not discussing this right now. _

Rex didn’t get in trouble, she thinks, but he  _ could have. _ He could’ve, because of  _ her actions, _ because of her, and she swore on her life she wouldn’t let him be lost because of her and she’d  _ failed, _ she’d not protected him like she promised Cody she would. Guilty, guilty, guilty.

_ It’s all your fault. _

She spends much of the next two days either pacing or curled up small on the bench in the back of the cell, although that’s hard and cold and uncomfortable, and she really wishes she had a blanket or a pillow or  _ something, _ at least. Her head  _ aches _ and she’s pretty sure she has a concussion, and her ribs throb when she breathes too hard, probably cracked, but no one seems to  _ care. _

At least, not until midday sometime on the first full day she’s in custody, when the door opens and she sits up (carefully, because if she moves too fast she gets dizzy) and watches as Kix, Fives, Echo, Brii, and Naas step inside, all looking various levels of pleased to see her. It’s not so bad for a while, then, the crushing guilt; Kix swears a bunch about the GAR apparently denying Anakin’s petition to have a Jedi healer come see her, Force-heals her concussion, although he doesn’t do much with her ribs. Naas tells her he knew she was innocent, Brii gives her a drawing of her and Rex and a hug, Echo apologizes for not being there to protect her (she hugs him, too, tells him it’s okay), and Fives regails her with stories about what the men have been doing (she suspects half of them aren’t true, but they’re funny at least) until the shocktroopers come back and say they have to leave.

She manages to ask Fives, before they go, about Rex. “They won’t let him or Jesse or the Jedi come see you, sir,” Fives says, and then he has to go.

Suddenly, the cell seems a lot more empty and cold.

_ (Look at you, so scared and all alone. So guilty. Do you think they  _ **_know_ ** _ what you’ve done, how you’ve hurt Rex?) _

She hates the cell, hates being trapped in here. Time drags on for ages, and she tries to meditate once, to sink into the Force, but all she can feel is  _ pain _ and the echoes of  _ loss _ when she touches the shocktroopers’ signatures, and she remembers meditating with Barriss and she can’t, everything’s too much, and so she curls up in a ball and cries again, even though she hates it.

(She can feel the memory of Letta dying, too, realizes she’s in the same cell Letta was in, and suddenly she can’t sleep anymore. What if she would’ve  _ acted _ instead of standing paralyzed, what if she could’ve  _ saved her, _ stopped this whole mess?)

The shocktroopers, led by Fox himself, come to get her midafternoon on the second full day, march her out into the guardroom, and Anakin’s standing there with her lightsabers and a new commlink, and she has just enough time to attach them to her belt and wrist before he pulls her into a warm hug, says, “You’ve been cleared and you’re free to go. Padme spoke on your behalf, it was impressive, really.”

Ahsoka doesn’t know what to say to that, so she just smiles and says, “Thank you,” walks next to him as they leave the base and all the cold grey of it behind. Anakin’s brought a speeder and she climbs in next to him, hugs herself a little.

“The men are excited to see you,” Anakin says, grinning at her. “They’ve been waiting for you to get out all day.”

She should feel good about that, but instead she shrugs a little and says, “Actually, Master, I was kind of hoping we could go back to the Temple. It’s been a long couple of days, I couldn’t really sleep in that base, I’m--tired.”

It’s not  _ entirely _ a lie.

“Sure, Snips,” Anakin says, but she can tell he’s confused and unsure--he nudges her lightly through their bond, but she doesn’t let him see any of the mess inside her head.

The trip to the Temple is silent, really, and then Anakin’s parking the speeder and she walks with him back to their rooms, says, “Thanks for coming and getting me,” and disappears into her room.

The first thing she does is get her datapad out and look up the results of the trial of Barriss Offee, former Jedi padawan.

There’s a video on the holonet. Barriss denounces the Order, in much the way Letta (poor Letta) had. Obi-Wan asks her how she could incriminate one of her closest friends, and Barriss says  _ it was necessary. _

Ahsoka stares at the diamonds on Barriss’ cheeks and wonders when, exactly, her friend became a stranger.

Eventually, there’s no more news on the trial--she’s guilty, of course, she’d confessed, but she hasn’t been sentenced yet. There’s some news about Ahsoka herself, none of it interesting, and she scrolls through it fast and tries not to think too much about Rex. She misses him. He would help, but--

She didn’t protect him enough and she swore an oath and she’s broken it twice now and so.

Eventually there’s nothing more to read, so Ahsoka pulls up some of her half-finished homework for her Temple classes, lays down on her bed with her blanket from Kix wrapped around her and tries to focus. Tries not to think about Barriss with Ventress’ lightsabers, trying to  _ kill her, _ about how she hasn’t seen Rex in two days and she’s not sure how he’s doing, about Anakin saying  _ they’ve been waiting for you to get out all day. _

This is better, here. Alone.

_ (You’ll always be alone.) _

~~~

General Skywalker comes back to the barracks  _ without  _ Commander Tano, and tells them that she just wanted to sleep, prompting disappointed murmurs from most of the men. Naas scowls, and Kix sees a very familiar look on Rex’s face, the look he gets when he’s trying to decide whether or not to call someone on their banthashit.

Kix wants to call banthashit himself. Now that the new members of their battalion are doing better, if Commander Tano can be in the barracks, she is. Partly because, as everybody knows although nobody will discuss it, Rex doesn’t sleep very well without her. Kix isn’t sure about her, but he knows her, and thinks she likes to not be alone.

They all subside and go about their business, for a while. It isn’t until about four hours later that Kix decides that  _ if  _ Commander Tano was ever asleep, she definitely isn’t now (knowing her), and she should have come to see them by now. Plus Rex has been looking pretty concerned and irritated, so Kix is inclined to think that Rex agrees with him.

Naas has been annoyed about it this whole time too. So of course, Kix decides they should go find their Commander and bring her to the barracks to see the men, if for no other reason than to reassure the battalion.

Naas takes a great deal of convincing, but not as much as Kix anticipated. It’s easier when Kix promises that yes, Naas can bring Orikih into the Jedi Temple, and no, they don’t have to talk to the Jedi at all. Naas agrees, reluctantly, to go with Kix to get her, because he wants to see her.

Then, of course, Kix gets Rex, who seems to have been just  _ waiting  _ for an excuse to storm into the Temple to get Ahsoka. Kix only thinks that because Rex has been fractiously working on reports, scowling deeper than usual, and when Kix walks towards him with Naas he gets to his feet so fast that Orikih startles.

“Do you want to come with us to get the Commander?” Kix asks.

“We can’t just go storming into the Temple to get her,” Rex says, very seriously, and like an officer is supposed to, and Kix raises an eyebrow.

_ “Technically,  _ we can,” he says, and Rex snorts. Jedi like technicalities a lot more than the GAR does - well, some Jedi.

General Skywalker is  _ not  _ a big fan of them.

“Yeah, we- have permission to go in the Temple.” Naas is timid these days, still, although less so. He shrugs a bit, petting his loth-kitten. “So…”

Rex snorts and turns off his datapad. “Fine. Let’s go.”

So they leave the barracks, and Kix leads the way because Naas is too nervous, and  _ technically  _ (again), Rex is not one of the clones with free access to the Temple, him not being Force-sensitive. Rex tells them he knows where Commander Tano’s room is, because she stays with General Skywalker and Rex went to their quarters once for a debriefing. It takes Rex a moment of thought, but then he starts pointing them through the elegant, somewhat musty, winding halls of the Temple. Kix makes note of the route himself, and where they are, just in case. It’s one of the habits from training that he’s never quite lost, even though as a medic he doesn’t usually end up needing the information.

Everything gets a little less odd and solemn and mystical when they get to the wing of the Temple that is apparently for living quarters. The Force is less heavy here (marginally), but no less Light. Kix likes that part, the Light. The doors aren’t really marked, but Rex walks down one hall and points to the third door on the right and nods.

“This is their room, I guess,” he says, quieter than he usually talks.

This is why the  _ vode  _ don’t go in the Temple with their Jedi unless they  _ have  _ to. Because it makes everyone so serious, and solemn - even Naas has gone very thoughtful-looking, although he’s looking around, jerkily, as if trying to see and notice everything.

Kix steps forward and knocks on the door, firmly, although whether this is all appropriate or not is a little in question. He mostly doesn’t ask that question anymore, but going to a Jedi General’s Temple quarters doesn’t really feel like it’s something they’re meant to be doing.

Then again, things just aren’t the same anymore, and he and Naas are allowed freely in and out of the Temple, which technically includes the Jedi Masters’ living spaces, more or less, so this is fine.

General Skywalker opens the door in his Jedi robes, blinks a little, then steps out of their way and gestures for them to come in, which also feels strange.

“You’re looking for Ahsoka, right?” he says, flat and a little wry. When they all nod (Naas having shrunk on himself like the cat he holds between his hands), the General jabs a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of one of two other doors leading off the main part of the living space. “She’s in her room. ‘Working.’ Good luck.”

Well, that’s great. Thanks, General. Kix shrugs at Rex, who sighs and shakes his head before walking over to the door and knocking with the air of somebody who knows exactly what response they’re going to get.

~~~

Ahsoka spends a while curled up on her bed, staring into nothing, remembering all the things she just wants to  _ forget, _ then with a sigh, she turns on her datapad again and immerses herself in homework.

She needs to get this stuff done, so she might as well just  _ do it, _ and it helps keep her mind off Barriss and Rex and the men (excited to see her, Anakin had said, and she’d just brushed that off, but she knows they’ll be  _ disappointed _ she’s not there), and it’s important, so.

So.

She has no idea how long it’s been when there’s a knock on the door, startling her out of a fog of exhausted guilt; she lifts her head up from where she’s propped it on one hand, reaches out into the Force to feel three new Force-signatures standing outside her door: Kix, Naas, and… and Rex.

_ Rex. _

He’s so  _ close _ and she wants him, it’s been two days (a little over, really) since she’s seen him and she’s missed him, but Cody’s angry and she knows why, knows he’s right to be angry, she could’ve gotten Rex in so much trouble, could’ve made Cody lose him, and it would’ve been  _ her fault. _ Her fault, so she broke her promise, so.

She’d sworn that on her  _ life. _

That’s not something you’re allowed to break without consequences. So.

So she doesn’t say anything, instead goes back to typing on her datapad. Hopefully they’ll just--go away. She can’t talk to them right now.

(But  _ Force, _ she wants Rex.)

“Ahsoka, we need to talk to you,” Rex says, and she swallows hard, shakes her head a bit, instinctive.

Doesn’t answer, because she can’t. She just can’t, if she says something she won’t be able to do this, so. She swallows hard, tightens her fingers around the edge of her datapad, bites her lip and shakes her head again.

She can’t do this.

The door clicks open, and Ahsoka startles, rolls onto her back and sits up, tugging her blanket around her and dropping her datapad onto her lap, as Naas walks in, followed by Kix and a very-annoyed-looking Rex.

“What are you doing, Ahsoka?” Rex asks, stern and glaring a little, and she indicates her datapad with one hand.

“Homework. Believe it or not, that’s still a thing I have to do,” she says, wryly, as steadily as she can, hopes they don’t pick up on the quaver in her voice. “And I was  _ busy.” _

“You’d rather do homework than come see your men,” he says, dry as a desert, and Kix rolls his eyes a bit, unimpressed.

She shrugs. “I need to get it done, and I’m tired, so…” and she shrugs again, picks the datapad up again.

They all just  _ stare, _ for a minute, and she drops her eyes, fiddles with her padawan braid.

“Everyone’s worried, sir,” Kix says, and she sighs.

“Yeah, but I’m fine, so.” She shrugs, can’t quite look at anyone. “You can tell them that.”

She goes to look back at her datapad again, only for Orikih to come scrambling up onto the bed and into her lap, clambering up onto the ‘pad itself and bumping the off switch with one paw.

Clever little loth-cat.

“Hi, Orikih,” she says with a snort, scratching the kitten’s oversized ears. The cat’s warm weight is comforting, feels safer, and she focuses on that so she’s not tempted to look at Rex or go to him.

Naas shifts, then says, “You should--um, come back,” and she’s surprised that he sounds almost  _ firm. _

Ahsoka tries not to wince. “I haven’t gone anywhere,” she says, lightly, rubbing her fingers over the poofy hair on Orikih’s tail.

Rex is so  _ close _ and it’s hard not to look at him, to drink in the sight and the warm comfort and safety of his presence. But she can’t. So.

“That’s not what he meant,” Rex says, seriously, and she knows if she looked at him he’d be frowning at her.

But she isn’t looking at him, and she won’t be for a while, so.

She shrugs, stares down at the kitten in her lap and doesn’t say anything.

She broke her promise and so this is the consequence of that.

~~~

Rex looks at Naas, who appears disappointed but not yet really  _ upset,  _ and back at Ahsoka, hands fidgeting in Naas’ cat’s fur. He doesn’t fully understand why she’s doing this, but he certainly recognizes her making excuses, and not wanting to look at him or his  _ vode. _ He also knows that with this, at least, she can’t be as stubborn as he can, especially with the help of his  _ vode. _

“Sir, I think-” Kix hesitates, tilting his head. “I think you owe it to the battalion to come see them. And they wanted-  _ we _ wanted to-” He stops, tapers off, actually goes a bit red. What Kix was thinking of was how the men want to try to show her they believed her, and are glad she’s back - not the gifts, exactly, but he thinks they just wanted time with her so they could make her see why they like it better when she’s there. Kix ends up shrugging, awkwardly, and huffing a frustrated breath.

She shrugs a bit, and Rex frowns.  _ “Vode,  _ give us a minute.”

Naas makes an odd face, then Orikih springs off Ahsoka’s lap and runs to him, and Kix gives Rex a look like  _ are you sure? _ then nods at Naas and turns around. “Right, sir.”

Rex waits until his  _ vode  _ have both left the room, then crosses his arms and sighs, slowly. “What is this? What are you doing, ‘Soka?”

“I told you,” she says, and he starts shaking his head before she finishes, “homework.”

“That’s a load of banthashit and we all know it,” he says, crossing towards her and sitting himself down at the foot of her bed, feet flat against the floor. “So why are you avoiding everybody?”

She shakes her head a little, staring at her knees. “I’m not.”

“You know they never thought you did it,” he says, watching for a response, to see if that seems right.

“That’s not- I know that.” She says it fast,  _ almost  _ defensive, and he frowns, leans her way and reaches out to take her datapad and set it a bit to one side.

He thinks she means that, that she knows the men didn’t mistrust her, so… What else? “So why don’t you wanna see them?” She’s still not looking at him, so he can’t get as good a read on her as he’d like.

“It’s not-” Ahsoka stops, shakes her head, and takes a slight breath, like she’s still going to say something, but then she shrugs half-heartedly, and Rex folds his hands together, examines her for a second.

“Do you not want to see me?” he asks frankly, and she flinches, and okay, so that’s something. Rex frowns, careful, doesn’t look away from her.

“It’s not that I don’t- want to,” she says, very softly, shoulders curling forward, and Rex blinks.

That doesn’t exactly sound like her, usually. He shifts a bit sideways, so he’s angled towards her, reaches out and sets his hand on her knee. “So why can’t you?”

She looks at his hand, for a minute, like she’s considering, and then says, hesitantly, “After my birthday party, when you were getting the taxi, Cody and I… talked a bit.” She pauses. “He said he- wouldn’t lose you, because of me, that he wouldn’t let anyone take you,” and she swallows, and Rex keeps himself steady because he wants to be frustrated, but then if he thinks about it, he can hardly blame Cody for being disapproving. He thinks he would be, too. “And I promised him I wouldn’t either. On my life.” Well, karking hells,  _ that’s  _ great. “And I- they could’ve taken you. And it would’ve been my fault.” Shrugging, she adds, “Cody’s mad at me because I broke my promise to him.”

Rex gives himself a moment to think through all that enough to be more objective, because his immediate reaction is one of- not quite anger, but defensiveness. The two of them shouldn’t be making each other promises about not losing him to each other, and Ahsoka shouldn’t have sworn on her life to not lose him because she can’t control that, and Cody shouldn’t be pissed at him for making his own karking choices. If he wants to be stupid, he will be, that’s not Cody’s problem.

But all that isn’t really the point, anyway, the point is that Ahsoka thinks it’s her fault he went after her, that it would have been her fault if he had gotten in trouble, and- he suspects, that it’s her fault he had to shoot Cody.

Which is, in the strictest sense, true.

But it certainly doesn’t leave him with much agency here.

“So who made me come after you?” he says, seriously, trying to catch her eyes, although she’s being very stubborn about not looking up. “Whose idea was it for me to karking jump out of a  _ pipe _ after you?”

“It’s still- I don’t- I should’ve protected you.” She shrugs.

Rex doesn’t understand how she  _ didn’t. _ He’s going to have to talk to Cody about this, because this whole karking promise thing shouldn’t have happened. “You did. As much as anyone could expect.” Except, apparently, his  _ ori’vod. _ Although sometimes, too, Cody just gets angrier more easily than people realize. His temper hasn’t exactly gotten better over the years, he just controls it more.

~~~

Ahsoka shrugs one shoulder, still can’t quite look at Rex. “It’s Cody’s opinion that matters,” she says, quietly, wishes she could just curl into Rex’s side and forget all this. “He’s never--I don’t think he likes me anymore, since… this,” and she gestures between them a little. “And he’s angry at me, and I… I don’t want you to have to--choose. Between us. It doesn’t--every time I think he might like me again, I do something like this and you get hurt or almost hurt and then it’s like he hates me again, I don’t know.”

She’s so--she just wants to be  _ close. _

Rex snorts, shifting closer to her, which--helps, some. “Sir, if he didn’t like you, I don’t think he’d even bother talking to you.”

That startles her enough she looks up at him, sees he’s watching her--he smiles, just a little bit, and she swallows, hesitates, and then uncrosses her legs, scooting over to sit next to him on the edge of the bed. He puts an arm around her and that’s better, that helps, so she curls into his side, some, closes her eyes a minute. “I don’t think he likes that you gave me armor,” she says, quietly. “I think--he thinks I’m gonna get you killed.”

“Well,” Rex says, grumbling, although he’s still serious, “he doesn’t seem to like that  _ he _ gave  _ me _ armor, so what does he know anyway.”

She has to chuckle a little at that. “I’m sorry I made them worry,” she says, gestures loosely at the outer room where Naas and Kix are, meaning the whole battalion, really. “I just--didn’t know what to do.”

“They’ll live, probably,” he says wryly, and then he pauses. “You shouldn’t promise not to lose me, you know. That’s not your call to make, and you can’t always do anything about that.”

She hesitates. “Maybe not, but I--you gave me armor, Rex, and Cody and I both--we both want you to be safe.” She doesn’t say it, but she doesn’t think Cody would’ve let all of  _ this, _ the closeness, happen if she hadn’t made that promise, if she hadn’t proven she’s as serious about Rex’s safety as Cody himself is.

That’s why it makes it so much worse that she--messed this up.

“You really think he doesn’t hate me?” she adds, looking up at Rex again, too vulnerable.

“Yeah, I really think,” he says, and that helps too.

She sighs, softly, then says, “Let me just--change and take a shower,” and she makes a face, “and then we can go back to the barracks.”

Rex grins at her, hugs her, tightly, then lets go and says, “Okay,  _ cyar’ika.” _

She smiles back, pushes herself up off the bed, leaving her blanket on the bed, grabs a change of clothes (and her Hero With No Fear shirt) and leaves the bedroom behind for the ‘fresher attached to her and Anakin’s rooms.

Maybe everything will be okay, after all.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have one more fic upcoming covering, dun dun dun, part of the Siege of Mandalore and the resolution of Stuff.

Naas and Kix both look very glad to see Rex and Ahsoka leaving her room, when she comes out in fresh clothes, with her sabers, smiling a bit at them. Rex thinks that not only are they happy to see her, but they’re also happy for the excuse to leave Anakin’s quarters. Anakin is lounging in the kitchen area with a mug of caf, which he raises in lazy salute towards them.

Naas doesn’t look at him, just gets up and hurries to the door, although Rex doesn’t think he’s scared, just uncomfortable.

“Good to have you with us, sir,” Kix says to Ahsoka, lightly, opening the door and striding out into the hall. Rex and Ahsoka follow, and Rex has to admit he’s pretty glad to be out of Anakin’s rooms too. Sometimes the atmosphere in the Temple is just so _heavy_ that he thinks it might be the Force, thick and weighty enough that even non-sensitives can feel it - whatever the case, it’s not a comfortable place to be, and it’s still less comfortable to be in his General’s own rooms, whether Anakin minds or not.

“Good to be back,” Ahsoka answers Kix, smiling a bit and bumping into Rex a little. He glances at her with a grin, and wants to put an arm around her, but does not. They’re in the Temple, it’s not the place for that sort of thing.

They are quiet on the walk back through the Temple, and on the short trek back to the barracks, although it is mostly a comfortable sort of quiet. Rex finds himself getting distracted thinking about his _ori’vod_ and his _cyar’ika_ and their apparent discussion, the implications of it and the promise Ahsoka had made, and what he should do about all of it. It bothers him, truthfully, that she promised Cody not to lose him, not to let anyone take him - and he doesn’t know what he thinks about Cody bringing it up to her (as it sounds like had happened) either. Maybe just because it’s really an impossible promise to keep. She can try, Cody can try, to help him, but they won’t always be there, and he thinks… thinks they think that it’s their fault when things happen to him, when he gets hurt, and he doesn’t entirely understand or like that either. All he knows is that Cody thinks he has not been a good enough _ori’vod,_ and that Ahsoka has, at least at times, thought she didn’t deserve his protection, and that worries him.

They are the most important people in his life, he knows that. Them and his General. And he doesn’t understand why they’re doing this.

But he ends up brushing all that away to worry about later so that he can focus on Ahsoka, can enjoy the moment of opening the barracks door and walking in with her to see his battalion, almost all at once, perk up, half of them getting to their feet.

Brii and Alpha and Echo come hurrying over first, before the rest of the battalion gets up their nerve, and Brii quickly steps forward and hugs her. Immediately afterward he lets go, turning almost as red as the tips of his hair, and stammers, “Welcome back, sir.”

“We knew you were innocent,” Echo says, quickly, and Alpha nods hard. Rex smiles a little at the two of them.

“Thanks,” Ahsoka says, and scoots forward to put her arms around Echo’s middle, with her blanket and all, and Echo, very awkward, but smiling a bit, hugs her back, patting her shoulder.

“Anytime, sir,” he mutters, a little red, and Ahsoka lets go of him and comes back over to Rex, who smiles at Echo, mildly amused by his brother’s evident embarrassment.

Many of his other _vode_ are easing over to them, most smiling and making little comments about being sure she was going to be back. Jesse salutes at her, smugly, and some of his other brothers tell her _if she wants to stay and have dinner with them in the mess, they’d, well, they’d really like that._

Rex loves his battalion sometimes.

~~~

Ahsoka spends the rest of the evening with the men, laughing and talking about nothing in particular; it’s almost weird to be sitting in the mess in just leggings and her shirt, her sabers left behind in the barracks. They’re all more excited than she’d expected to see her, especially Alpha and Brii, and the laughter and jokes and all the obvious _happiness_ in the air helps with the ever-present guilt. It doesn’t make it go away entirely, but at least it’s more distant, less constant and focused and heavy.

After they eat, they all troop back into the barracks, and Ahsoka goes over to Rex’s bunk with him, flops down on her back (making a face at how uncomfortable the thin mattress is) and looks up at Rex, who’s standing by the edge of the bunk, pulling his armor off. She bundles herself up in her blanket, says, lightly, “So what’ve you been doing while I was stuck in jail?”

“Being miserable,” he says, teasingly, sitting down to strip off his lower body armor.

She rolls her eyes, even though he has his back to her and can’t see it. “You’re a _di’kut,”_ she tells him, fondly. _“Besides_ being miserable, what were you doing?”

“Reports and paperwork,” he says, casual, “talking to the men. The usual.”

Ahsoka snorts. “So you didn’t miss me at all?” she asks, raising an eyebrow, letting a little smile play about her lips so he knows she’s teasing him.

“Not a bit,” he says, looks back and grins, and she can’t help grinning back.

“Good,” she says, forms one hand into a claw and tugs a little, so he’s jerked off-balance, tumbling back onto the bed. “Well, I didn’t miss you at all either.”

Rex makes a face at her, which is _adorable,_ really, and sits back up, bending over to finish pulling off his armor. “Good,” he says, grumbling, and she chuckles.

“Why are you always so _slow,”_ she demands, crossly, although she’s still smiling, because despite her words she really _had_ missed him, and missed being able to just laugh and be close.

 _“You_ try wearing full-body armor that’s not designed to come off easily,” he snarks, and she tilts her head to one side, eyeing him.

“If you can find any small enough to fit me, sure,” she tells him. “Just so I can learn how to kit up faster than you and tease you about it. Then both me _and_ Fives will be better at it than you are.”

Rex snorts and shakes his head. “I’d like to see you _try,”_ he says, and she pushes herself up on one elbow, waits until he twists to look at her (now fully divested of his armor) before she raises an eyebrow.

“Is that a challenge, Captain?” she asks, low and intent and prowling.

He smiles, just a little, and says, “Only if that means you start wearing armor regularly.”

She smirks, a bit. “Like I said, find me some that’s small enough and you have a deal.”

“You’d wear _full armor,”_ he says, raises his eyebrows.

“Okay, not _quite_ full armor,” she says, “it’d get in the way of the more acrobatic stunts we do. But I’d wear actual, not-leather stuff. If only because it’d be fun to laugh at you.”

“As if you could kit up faster than me,” he says, dry.

“If _Fives_ can, then I can too,” she tells him, tugs on the Force again so he’s jerked back onto the bed. “C’mere, you big idiot,” and she flops over onto his chest, blanket and all, her face a few inches from his own.

“Why am I an idiot this time?” he asks, and she grins a little, rolls her eyes and pokes his nose.

“Who says I need a reason to call you an idiot?”

“I don’t know,” he says, wrapping his arms around her, “there’s just usually a reason.”

“Mm, well,” she says, shifting a bit so she can trace her fingers over his face, “maybe I just felt like calling you an idiot today.”

“Of course you did,” he says, and she grins.

“Mhm.” She snuggles a bit closer, lays her head down on his chest and threads her fingers through his hair, tracing patterns over the scars on the side of his head. “Love you, Rex.”

He runs one hand up and down her back headtail, says, “I love you too.”

She hums a bit, curls up more and closes her eyes, lets out a soft sigh. Guilty or not, everything is so much _better_ and safer now, and she’s not cold anymore, so.

So this is good.

~~~

Rex puts off talking to Cody about the things Ahsoka told him for a couple days, not sure how to bring this up to his _ori’vod._ But he trains with Ahsoka again on the second day, runs through the saber form she showed him before, focused, and spars with her hand to hand, and afterward, as he’s snapping on his armor pieces again, he looks at his bracer and its orange paint and decides he needs to talk to Cody _now._

Because he isn’t talking to his _ori’vod._ And he misses him, already.

So he leaves Ahsoka doing Jedi homework, heads over to the 212th’s barracks, and finds Cody talking to Hang-up by one of the bunks. Cody turns to look at him, face drawing tight, and Hang-up makes a face, says, “This is awkward,” and hurries away.

“What do you need, Rex?” Cody says, tiredly.

“Can we talk?”

Cody nods, gestures back towards where Rex knows his office is. “Come on, _ori’vod.”_

Rex tries not to feel uncomfortable, or guilty, as they walk into Cody’s office and Cody leans back against his desk, sighing.

“So,” Cody says.

Rex crosses his arms and looks at the floor, thinking a moment. “I’m sorry, _ori’vod.”_

Cody exhales, long. “I know. I understand.”

“I just… I told General Skywalker I’d keep an eye on her, and I told her I’d help her, so I couldn’t just let you take us in.”

“I know.”

Rex doesn’t know what to say, because Cody still just seems tired, and he wants to understand what his _vod_ is thinking. So he hesitates, switching his weight back and forth on his feet, and Cody speaks up.

“I do not want to lose you,” he says, frankly, almost emotionless. Rex didn’t expect such a simple admission, even though Cody’s been his most trusted friend since the war began, and he’s not sure how to react. “Every time you do something like this, it scares me.”

Rex smiles apologetically, a bit wry. “I guess I scare you a lot.”

Cody raises one eyebrow. “You guessed right. Rex, you could’ve ended up reconditioned for this.”

“But I didn’t.”

“That’s not the point.” Cody curls one hand into a fist against the desk. “You are not careful enough anymore. And I-” He hesitates. “I have not done well enough, I gave you armor and I haven’t kept the promise.”

Rex frowns, trying not to fidget, or get upset, although he doesn’t like this. He just watches his brother, his best friend, and tries to understand. “How haven’t you kept the promise, _ori’vod?”_

Cody shakes his head, shortly, looking down. “It doesn’t matter,” he says roughly. “I haven’t been there, and then you do things like this… What am I supposed to do, Rex?”

Rex sighs. “Ahsoka told me about her promise.” Cody nods, once, as if he isn’t surprised. “This is why you actually let her promise you something that _karking stupid,_ right?”

Cody shrugs once. “You gave her armor, _ori’vod._ I just wanted to know she was going to have your back, too. I didn’t ask her to promise.”

“I know.” Rex rubs his forehead, tiredly. “Neither of you can protect me all the time, and I wouldn’t want you to.”

“But I keep _failing,_ Rex,” Cody says, sharp, and there it is. He taps his knuckles on the desk, gritting his teeth. “I’m supposed to be there, that’s what that means,” and he points at Rex’s bracer with its orange stripe.

“You do your best.”

“I’m not sure.”

Rex nods, carefully, then steps forward and puts his arms around Cody’s shoulders for a hug; Cody doesn’t really return the gesture, but Rex doesn’t care. “Your armor’s getting kind of faded,” he says stepping back and nodding. “So’s mine. We should repaint it.”

Cody sighs, shakes his head at him. “You’re a _di’kut.”_

“And you need to not hold Ahsoka to that promise,” Rex says, seriously. “If she wants to promise something like that she can promise it to me so I can tell her she’s an idiot.”

Cody snorts, but fidgets just a little bit. “I just- If I’m not doing enough, then I wanted- She could help.”

Rex shakes his head at his brother, a bit regretful, a bit grateful. _“Ori’vod,_ you don’t have to do anything more for me. And neither does she.”

“I know.” Cody shrugs.

“Let’s go ask Brii for paint, you _mir’osik.”_ Rex is not totally satisfied, and he’ll probably have to think more about this later, but for now he thinks this is good enough. As good as things can be, anyway, with the way things are and how often they lose people. There are just some people he can’t lose, has promised to himself he won’t.

(You can make stupid promises to yourself, then you’re the only one who knows if you can’t keep them. So he promised himself he wouldn’t lose Cody or Ahsoka or Anakin. His men he doesn’t promise to save, but he does promise to try. That’s how he sleeps, these days.)

~~~

A few days after being released from prison, Ahsoka’s laying on Rex’s bunk, her feet propped on his pillow, attempting to finish up some of her homework but rather failing in that. The _reason_ behind that is because Naas is busy talking to Brii and Rex and Alpha, and it turns out he likes to chatter. A _lot._

It’s honestly _adorable._

They’re supposed to ship out again in three days--with all the confusion of the bombing and everything that’d followed, they’d been given a little over a week’s leave to sort things out--so everyone’s just enjoying the downtime, even if she can tell Rex is bored with it all. She knows the sparring and the saber lessons help, though.

Anyway, she’s trying to actually _focus_ (somewhat) when she overhears someone, Akaan she thinks, making a derogatory comment with a _lot_ of Mando’a swears about the Senate; she snorts and rolls her eyes, privately agrees with the sentiment, although there are at least a few nice Senators. To her surprise, though, Naas speaks up, says, “He shouldn’t swear so much, they aren’t--well, the Chancellor seems nice, anyway.”

Ahsoka frowns, puts her datapad aside and looks over at Naas, says, “How do you know that, Naas?”

“He came to talk to me when you were gone,” Naas says, petting Orikih, and that’s… odd.

“Why?” She frowns deeper, sitting up and idly tracing her fingers over her lightsaber hilt. “I’ve never heard of the Chancellor being interested in one trooper before--he’s so busy, usually.”

Naas shifts, clutches Orikih tighter. “He said he wanted to know if I--if I had noticed you being strange, before all the stuff with the Temple.” He’s sheepish, flushing a bit, looking down at his kitten. “They said if anyone else thought they knew something had happened they should talk to him too.”

That’s… unusual. Ahsoka looks over at Rex, sees he looks deep in thought, running his fingers consideringly over the fresh stripe of 212th orange on his bracer. Her instincts tell her this is _not good,_ and she’s not sure whether that’s just _actual instincts_ or if it’s the Force, nudging her. “I don’t think you should talk to him alone again,” she says, carefully. “It’s not… I think it’d just be smarter.”

Naas frowns. “But he, well, he said if I ever needed anything else maybe I could mention it.”

Before Ahsoka can respond to that, Rex speaks up, says, “Politicians say a lot of things to make themselves look good, Naas. We just don’t know what he really wants.”

That’s one way of putting it. “Just please be careful, Naas,” she says. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’ll be fine, sir,” he says, grinning at her, and she smiles back.

Tries not to worry too much about what the Chancellor _wants_ with Naas.

Why _him,_ specifically? No one outside the battalion and the Council (with a few exceptions) knows about his… Ustura problem, and there’s nothing else particularly unique or _useful_ about Naas, in a strictly political sense.

So why?

~~~

Naas thinks Rex and Commander Tano are overreacting, probably, but it still makes him kind of nervous. They usually know things he doesn’t, but he’s not so sure about this. The Chancellor felt-

Well, now that he isn’t sure, and thinks about it, he thinks the Chancellor felt odd. Sort of like when you put a new armor piece on, or put your right bracer on your left arm. Something about the Chancellor didn’t _fit_ right, as if he didn’t belong. Naas doesn’t understand that. But he thinks that mostly, he had felt nice, had felt like he was really concerned and really tired and interested. Naas also thinks that he’s not even sure the Chancellor had felt at all odd, because _everything_ was stupid then, the whole Force had hurt and he’d tried so hard to press it all down like he used to.

It doesn’t work anymore, trying to box the Force back up. He doesn’t try, much, but sometimes he worries, or it hurts again, so he tries to press all the Force and feeling back into a ball at the center of himself and ignore it, but he can’t anymore. Then it just _burns,_ makes everything worse.

General Kenobi says that’s because he let it out now, so he can’t push it back. Like trying to put water back behind a burst dam, he says.

Naas thinks it’s probably better that he can’t, but he doesn’t know, sometimes. Having the Force wasn’t supposed to be _allowed,_ maybe somebody will decide he can’t have it again, and then what?

General Kenobi also says that’s not going to happen. Naas usually believes General Kenobi.

Today, the Force doesn’t hurt, mostly, and everybody is more or less calm. Some of his _vode_ still seem anxious about Commander Tano, although Naas has told them _so many_ kriffing times they don’t have to be. Dumb _vode._

He scritches Orikih’s back, and peers over at Brii’s drawing. Brii told Naas he was practicing, which has amounted to a bunch of shapes with lines between them that look like people. Brii _says_ it helps him draw people. Naas doesn’t know anything about that, but he does know he likes watching Brii sketch, when Brii lets him.

“I think,” he says, thoughtfully, “that the Chancellor liked your cat painting on my armor.”

His _vod’ika_ snorts. “Why do you think that?” Brii, Naas thinks, doesn’t believe that anybody besides his _aliit_ likes his pictures. Sometimes Brii is an idiot.

“Because it’s a good cat,” Naas says, shrugging. “I don’t know, I just- It felt like it.”

“Oh, wow, conclusive.” Brii rubs his charcoal pencil between his fingers, doodles a shape on the back of his hand while squinting at his sketches. “You can’t just tell me you felt it, Naas, that doesn’t _always_ mean the Force said so.”

“Yes it does!” Naas scowls. “I’m not stupid, Brii, I know what the- I know what it feels like.”

Brii chuckles, _at him,_ the asshole. “Okay, _vod._ Sure.”

“I mean it.” Naas crosses his arms, because his _vod’ika_ is stupid. Naas knows the difference between _sensing_ something is true and _thinking_ it is, he can _tell._ “I could feel he liked the picture. And I _know_ you’re- you’re _stupid.”_

Brii raises an eyebrow, pointing his pencil at Naas. “I’m _stupid?_ Did you seriously just say that?”

Naas hesitates, double-checks Brii’s face and asks the Force, and when he’s very sure that Brii isn’t actually mad, he grins and nods and says sagely, “Yes. Because I can _sense_ that too, _vod’ika,_ you’re a _di’kut.”_

Brii chucks his charcoal pencil at Naas, and it hits his armor and snaps into two pieces. Orikih, with an excited mew, leaps after half of it and bats it around, and Naas eyes the remains of the pencil with a grimace.

“Not my fault,” he says, seriously.

“It is your fault,” Brii insists, and Captain Rex snorts, looks up from his datapad and shakes his head at them.

“It is _not.”_ Naas knows because he didn’t _make_ Brii throw the pencil.

This time.

He sort of made Brii spill paint once. It was an _accident_ (okay so maybe not) and he still hasn’t told Brii. Maybe he never will, it might be funnier this way.

Anyway, he picks up the pieces and gives them back to Brii, who swears a lot, takes the shorter half of charcoal, and goes back to scribbling out people.

Naas likes his battalion a lot. And he likes Commander Tano, who is messing with Captain Rex’s hair, and Rex, who is pretending he doesn’t notice, and Brii, who’s just generally being stupid. Nothing is ever all the way okay, ever, but this is still good. Nice. Better, the Force says. He thinks things will stay good, with them around, even though he thinks he _hates, hates, hates_ war. It’s easier with his _vode._

~~~

A few days before the 501st is off leave, Ahsoka finally gets up the courage to go find Cody in his office, working on reports; Rex is off doing something with Brii and Naas and Alpha, and he’d offered to let her come, but she’d made some excuse about him spending time with the men without her and her having homework to do, anyway.

The homework part isn’t true, and she suspects Rex knows that--she’s spent a lot of time working on her Temple classwork lately, and she’s managed to get entirely caught up. While the Temple Masters are understanding about not being able to get homework in during battles, they expect her to use her time away from the front _wisely._

It’s stupid, but it makes sense.

Anyway, she’s pretty sure Rex knew her excuses were just that, excuses, but he didn’t push the issue, and so here she is, knocking on Cody’s door.

“Come in,” he calls, and she hesitates before tentatively pushing the door open and stepping through. He looks up from his datapad, raises an eyebrow, says, slowly, “Commander Tano. What can I do for you?”

“I, uh,” and Ahsoka pauses, swallows, shifting a bit, “I wanted to talk to you.”

Cody straightens, turns his datapad off and pushes it to the side, settling his stylus down on top of it. Nods at the extra chair, which is _shitty_ but all he has, and she drags it over in front of his desk and sits down, starts fiddling idly with the hilt of her shoto. He doesn’t say anything, just waits, watches, and she shifts, hesitates, swallows hard. “I--you know I didn’t ask Rex to come with me.”

“I know,” Cody says, nodding once, his eyes appraising.

“If it’d been up to me, I would’ve had him stay,” she adds, and he nods again. “He didn’t get in trouble, either.”

“He could have,” Cody says, neutral, like he’s looking for her reaction. She can’t read his face.

She slumps, shoulders curling inwards, and nods. “I know, I--I’m sorry.”

“You did not break your promise,” Cody sighs, after a minute. “And I… perhaps it is not a fair one. You and I, we cannot always protect him, especially not from himself.”

She lifts her head, stares at him for a minute, then swallows and says, “But I--”

“Commander,” he says, and then hesitates for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Ahsoka. Rex is--important to me, and I would not forgive myself if something were to happen to him. Your promise to me was another way to protect him, when I couldn’t be there for him, but in the end, he is,” and Cody stops, pausing, like he’s searching for the right words. “Rex will be a _di’kut_ when he wants to,” he finally says, wry, “and neither of us can stop him. I should not have been angry at you.”

She doesn’t even know what to say.

“That doesn’t mean, however,” he adds, smiling just a little, “that I’m letting you off the hook entirely. It’s our job to save his ass when he pulls one of his stunts.”

Ahsoka can’t help chuckling at that, although she shifts a bit, still worried. “So you--don’t hate me?”

Something flashes across his face, too quickly for her to decipher it. “Commander,” and he’s _so_ dry, “if I hated you, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”

Oh.

There’s a surge of relief that’s (almost) enough to disperse the lingering guilt. “Rex told me that,” she says, laughing a little, “but I just--” and she stops, shaking her head.

“I hated Krell,” Cody says. “I hate Maul. I _don’t_ and would never hate my brother’s _cyare.”_ He smiles, just a tiny upward curve of his mouth. “We all like you, Commander.”

And maybe that shouldn’t be as reassuring as it is, but Ahsoka smiles widely anyway, says, “Thanks, Cody. Really.” Because he doesn’t hate her, and apparently _everyone_ likes her, and that’s--it’s comforting. “I should go see Rex, he and Brii and a couple others wanted to go do something with me. I told them I had homework.”

Cody snorts, nods and pulls his datapad back over in front of him, smiling thinly. “You should,” he agrees, and Ahsoka stands up, putting the chair back where it was.

“Thanks,” she says again, and then she steps out of the office and hurries off in the direction of the 501st’s barracks.

Cody doesn’t hate her. Everything is going to be okay.

~~~

Everyone is so busy on their last couple days on leave that Rex doesn’t see much of Ahsoka, who’s spending a good deal of time in the Temple anyway, with General Kenobi and Anakin. Rex focuses on his men, on getting them geared up for whatever their next campaign is, so he’s surprised when Cody and Anakin come to him in the barracks on their last day of leave, Cody in his armor and Anakin in a pleased little smile.

His _vode_ are all watching them, as they always do, because Anakin being here means orders or something important or, at the least, something entertaining.

“Hey, sir,” Rex says, walking over to them and turning off his datapad. “Hey, _ori’vod._ What do you need?”

Anakin crosses his arms, still smiling a little. “I have new orders for you, Rex.”

Rex nods, settles into parade rest. “Figured, sir.”

“Ahsoka’s being Knighted,” Anakin explains, matter-of-fact, and Rex can’t help a surprised, proud smile. He knew that would probably be soon, although he’d been worried about how that would all work after she was accused of bombing the Temple. If she’s a Knight, like General Skywalker, does that count as a military promotion as well? Anakin answers that question with his next statement. “Which leaves the 501st short a Commander. We’re promoting Jesse to Captain, and you-” Anakin pauses, grinning, and Rex raises an eyebrow, “-to Commander.”

Rex nods. “I see. It’s an honor, sir. I’ll do my best.”

Anakin frowns at him, a bit impatient. “Yeah, I know. So that’s kind of great.”

Rex chuckles a little, smiles at his General and glances at Cody. “Yeah. So what’re our orders?”

With an irritated huff, Anakin waves his hand and moves on from the promotion, apparently disappointed Rex wasn’t more excited. “We’re splitting the 501st, reforming it into two battalions. You and Torrent and most of the veterans, you’re going to be serving under Ahsoka. I’m taking the men that used to be the 607th.”

Rex tightens his hold on his datapad, unsure what this means, exactly. This is a lot to throw at him. “Permanently, sir?” he asks.

“Apparently.”

Rex nods, looking down, thinking. His men, half of them gone, that’s a lot of them. “Are they giving us new troops, to make up the numbers?”

“Some.”

Rex doesn’t like that he won’t be a CO for the 607th anymore. Doesn’t like that his General won’t be _his_ General anymore, although he supposes this could be worse. Ahsoka could have been reassigned to an entirely different battalion. “So our orders?”

“We’ve got a campaign on Mandalore. Darth Maul and the crime syndicates made a mess of things there, and we’re trying to win it back.”

“Sounds exciting,” Rex says, lips quirking up a little. He feels very tired. “So when’s Ahsoka officially taking over?”

“Tomorrow.” Anakin grins, and Rex can tell he’s very proud. He should be, too; Ahsoka’s a proper Jedi now, and a General. Rex imagines that would be something to be proud of, training a good Jedi and General, but he doesn’t really know.

“Good to know. Need anything else, sir?”

Anakin frowns, hesitates, and looks unsure of himself for a minute, then says, “No. Briefing is tomorrow at 0800, though.” Rex nods, but when he doesn’t otherwise answer, Anakin sighs and turns to go. “I have to meet with Obi-Wan about this.”

Rex looks around at his _vode,_ Jesse and Je’kai and Fives and Echo and Tup and Kix and Naas, then quickly steps forward and says, “Hey, sir.” Anakin turns around and Rex pulls him into a hug, an arm tight around his shoulders. Anakin hesitates a second, then hugs him back with a small chuckle, and Rex says, “Stay safe, _vod.”_

He lets go, and Anakin gives him a funny look, part emotional, part confused. Rex shrugs, a bit, half-smiles, and then Anakin grabs his shoulder, steps closer to him and leans his forehead against Rex’s. “You too, brother.”

Rex swallows a bit, wants to tell Anakin he’s been the best karking General they could’ve had, but he leaves it be, because he thinks he’s made that obvious anyway. And he’s feeling sheepish. So he steps back, grins wryly, and salutes. “Not sure I like me and Ahsoka not being around to keep you from doing stupid things, sir.”

Anakin shrugs, shakes his head. “You’re gonna be around a lot anyway.”

That’s true. General Kenobi still manages to keep an eye on Anakin. So Rex shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Still, he thinks he’ll need to have a talk with whoever Anakin has as a CO (most likely Je’kai again, that makes the most sense, probably Je’kai and DJ), tell them to look out for his General.

The only time he’s had a General that wasn’t General Skywalker didn’t exactly… go well. So he’s glad this just means Ahsoka’s the new General, because he thinks that could be good. Probably not much of a change, in many ways, if he’s honest - what’s the saying, like Master like Padawan?

So this will be alright, he thinks. He just doesn’t exactly _like_ it.

~~~

Ahsoka hadn't really known what to expect when the Council summoned her, the last morning of leave; Anakin standing in the middle of the room and smiling proudly had further thrown her off. The revelation that the Council saw the recent… _events_ as her Trials had definitely not even entered her mind.

Even hours later, she's still not used to the absence of her padawan braid.

With the dual promotion to General and Knight comes, apparently, a _lot_ of paperwork. She's stuck in her new room in the Temple (she'd had to move, and regretted that immediately upon discovering the Knights’ rooms don't have private freshers) for _ages,_ working on all the logistics--Rex's promotion to Commander, Jesse being installed as her Captain, Dogma a Lieutenant, requesting new troopers to fill out their ranks, since losing the former (and now current, once again) 607th halves their numbers--so it's not until later at night that she can finally turn her datapad off and push back from her new desk, sighing.

She wants to go see Rex, and her men (now _really_ her men). And it's late, and she's tired, so.

It only takes a couple minutes to pull off her dress (and she should think about changing that, it's more befitting a padawan than a Knight, and get some real bracers too) and replace it with her Hero With No Fear shirt, and she tucks her sabers into the waistband of her leggings and grabs her fuzzy blanket and her datapad and comm (after a moment of consideration), in case anyone needs her, and then makes for the barracks.

Coruscant is quieter, tonight, the air cool and refreshing, and she takes big, gulping breaths as she walks the short distance, humming to herself. _Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano._ It has a ring to it, she has to admit.

She can't help grinning, almost secretive. She _made it._

She's barely pushed open the door to the barracks and stepped inside when _Rex_ snaps out, loudly, voice carrying, “General in the barracks!” and _everyone,_ without fail, jerks to attention, most of them _grinning._ She has to freeze, for a second, just staring at them (and she knows she's blushing orange all down her face and neck), and then she's laughing, suddenly, bright and clear.

“You guys are _ridiculous,”_ she says, rolling her eyes, “I'm in _pajamas!”_

“Like we care, sir,” Fives says, and they all seem to take that as a signal to relax. “Congrats on the promotion. You're a real Jedi now.”

“Oh, shut up,” Ahsoka says, but she can't stop _smiling._ “Calm down, I'm too tired for the congrats.”

“Yes, _General,”_ Fives says, saluting overdramatically, and she flips him off and shakes her head, snorting, goes over to Rex’s bunk.

“Took you long enough,” he says, smiling, and she huffs.

“Not you _too!_ I'll have you know, Anakin was a padawan for _ten years,”_ she tells him, dropping down to sit on the bunk. “Talk about a late bloomer.”

“That wasn't the point,” he says, snorting, and she rolls her eyes, leans into his side so she can slip an arm around him.

“I just made it the point.”

Rex shakes his head, though his eyes are dancing (which is _not fair,_ she wants to kiss him). “Your power’s going to your head already.”

“Mm, I don't think so, _Commander_ Rex. I like the sound of that, don't you?” She raises an eyebrow, smirking just a little, holding his gaze.

Rex just shrugs (disappointing), says, “I don't know, I'm not sure I'm attached to it yet.”

“I am,” Ahsoka tells him, lightly, still grinning. “It suits you better than _Captain._ I'm still better at commanding the boys, though.”

“Whatever you wanna hear, _General Tano,”_ Rex says, snarky, rolling his eyes, and she swallows a bit, knows she's flushing, but refuses to look away.

“What I _wanna_ hear,” she says, pointedly, “is you _shutting up.”_

And she leans over and kisses him.

~~~

Rex is more or less alright with shutting up, in this situation, although of course once Ahsoka is done kissing him and is just smiling smugly from very close to his face, he has things to say about that. “I guess that’s too bad for you, isn’t it, sir?”

“What?” she asks, blinking, and Rex leans back a little smiles at her.

“For all your _‘commanding skills,’_ you can’t make me shut up. So I’m not particularly impressed.” Not that that’s really any measure of a good officer - but also he’s right, of course.

She grins at him, slow, eyes bright, and he sighs before she even speaks because really, why did he pick the Jedi with so little _self-control?_ “Is that a challenge?” she asks him, and he smiles just as slow, not as enthusiastic.

“Maybe when we aren’t in the middle of the _barracks,_ General Tano.” He doesn’t even have to check on his _vode_ to know they’re all trying to pretend they aren’t paying any attention to the two of them. Rex thinks that _none_ of them ever knew what to expect from her when she joined the battalion, and most of the time they’re all still a bit confused and surprised by her. He thinks that’s part of why everyone likes her - she’s not what she’s supposed to be.

Sometimes, like right now, that makes things interesting.

She doesn’t seem particularly fazed - actually, not at all, because she just raises one eyebrow at him, and leans over to kiss his nose. Then she smiles a little and says, “Oh, is that a problem?”

“Yes.” Rex reaches for his datapad, clearing his throat a bit, and turns the device on, hoping she’ll just take the karking cue. She’s the new _General,_ she can’t be doing this right now. In the middle of the barracks. When everyone was wanting to talk to her. Key word now being _was;_ he glances at Brii and sees his poor _vod’ika_ furiously scribbling in his sketchbook, redfaced. Rex laughs, though, because he sees Naas is… hanging upside-down off the bunk next to Brii, staring at the two of them, Orikih balanced on his stomach. Rex taps Ahsoka’s knee, gestures slightly at Naas, trying not to laugh as hard as he wants to.

Ahsoka, however, has no reservation about breaking into gales of laughter, which puts a lopsided smile on Naas’ face. Orikih mews, gets up and stretches, then jumps off of Naas to run over to Ahsoka and Rex, clambering up onto Ahsoka’s lap with an obvious effort.

Naas frowns and sits up, then swings his legs out of the bunk next to Brii and crosses his arms. “Stop stealing my cat,” he says, grumpily, and Orikih, who had just begun to get comfortable, jumps back off Ahsoka’s lap and sprints back over to him.

Ahsoka makes a face. “Maybe she just wanted to offer her congrats, did you think of _that?”_

“I can feel the- it too, remember,” Naas says dryly, although there’s a bit of a tremor to his voice still. “So I _know._ Don’t boss around my cat.”

Rex wishes Naas was staying in his battalion.

“She doesn’t have to come if she doesn’t want to,” Ahsoka grumps, rolling her eyes, but Naas just huffs to himself and scratches Orikih’s head, clearly unimpressed with that answer. He’s doing so much better, these days, about the Force and the Jedi and General Skywalker (although as it turns out, he _hates_ fighting, sobs after battles, and that’s concerning in their world), and Rex is relieved about that. Sometimes he still worries, but it seems like Naas should be alright now.

Ahsoka, too, has seemed a little better the past couple days, and Cody had informed him neutrally that he spoke to Ahsoka and told her he wouldn’t hold her to her promise, and Rex isn’t sure but he thinks that helped.

Rex is concerned about the war, about the way things are changing and, it seems, escalating. He can’t forget that the Temple bombing and Ahsoka being suspected says that people no longer trust the Jedi like they used to, and everyone’s sick of the fighting, and he is so much more aware now than he ever thought he would be that there is nothing for his _vode_ except the war.

If the war ends like all these people want, then what happens to him and his _vode?_ But if it doesn’t, if it just keeps getting worse… how many things like this Temple bombing will there be? And how many Jedi will be like Commander Offee, by the end? And maybe those things aren’t for him to worry about, but then again he can’t help it, and somebody has to worry about his _vode._

For now, though, it will be alright. Ahsoka is a General. And they have a campaign coming up. So there’s no time for wondering about things that aren’t even problems yet. His _aliit_ is as safe as they can be, and that is enough.

_Fin_


End file.
